IDF Chief: ‘We’re fighting Hezbollah to return northerners home’

The Israeli government extended hotel stays for evacuees from the north through December 31, 2024.

By World Israel News Staff

Chief of Staff of the Israeli army Herzi Halevi said on Tuesday that the military is working to return displaced residents of Israel’s northern border region to their homes, as quickly as possible, as evacuees bemoan the ongoing fighting which has forced them out of their communities.

“I just finished a visit with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States military [Gen. Charles Q. Brown] at the Northern Command. We are strengthening operational cooperation in the face of challenges and threats in the Middle East,” Halevi said in a recorded media statement.

The IDF is “very determined to continue to harm Hezbollah, to eliminate more and more commanders, and to deprive it of assets and capabilities. We are not stopping,” Halevi continued.

“Hezbollah has more capabilities and the work is not yet complete. Our mission is clear, to return the residents of the north to their homes in safety, and the IDF is working toward that end around the clock,” he added.

“We are determined to return the residents of the north to their homes safely as quickly as possible.”

Although Israel engaged in a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah on Sunday, preventing a large scale attack on the center of the country, the terror group resumed its daily bombardment of northern communities just one day later.

For over 10 months, Hezbollah has launched rockets, missiles, and explosive drones at civilian homes and military assets in the north. While communities within 3.5 kilometers of the Lebanese border have been evacuated, hundreds of thousands of residents remain in their homes under constant threat of bombing.

On Monday, the Israeli government quietly acknowledged that it had extended subsidized hotel stays for evacuees from the northern and Gaza-adjacent communities through December 31, 2024.

That extension indicates that the government does not anticipate the fighting will be over and that residents will not have the ability to safely return to their homes this year.