The IDF will act forcefully and Lebanon will face devastation if Hezbollah attacks Israel, Bennett warned.
Naftali Bennett, Israel’s education minister and a member of the Security Cabinet, warned that the Hezbollah terror group could bring devastation to Lebanon.
Speaking on Monday to IDF Radio following threats made by Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah, Bennett said that any future attack by Hezbollah would be considered a “declaration of war by the Lebanese state” as a whole.
Israel will not operate “surgically” in the next war with the Shiite terror group; rather, it will strike at any building used for Hezbollah’s activities, residential or otherwise, he clarified.
“Unlike the Second Lebanon War, this time we won’t differentiate between the organization and the State of Lebanon. This means any attack by Hezbollah will cause destruction throughout Lebanon and its institutions,” Bennett stated.
He emphasized, however, that Israel is seeking to prevent another war with Hezbollah. “Israel’s interest is to prevent another confrontation in Lebanon, and so our new strategy is simple: Lebanon equals Hezbollah, Hezbollah equals Lebanon,” he said.
Nasrallah, speaking on the 11th anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, threatened that Israel would suffer “great defeat and humiliation” in any future conflict.
In June, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot said the Iran-backed Hezbollah has a presence in “every third or fourth house” in southern Lebanon, in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSC) 1701, which calls for the removal of all armed groups from the area.
Hezbollah was ensconced in some 240 villages and towns in southern Lebanon and remains the most immediate threat to Israel, Eisenkot said, adding that the Islamist group receives sophisticated weaponry from Iran, some of which is supplied by Russia.
Addressing a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) last July, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Danny Danon presented an aerial photograph of the Lebanese village of Shaqra, which, he noted, has been transformed into a “terrorist stronghold.”
By: World Israel News Staff