Netanyahu: ‘We don’t need Hezbollah deal to reclaim the north’

Explosive drone impact triggers security officials to make last-minute change to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s itinerary.

By World Israel News Staff

An explosive drone impacted in Metula on Monday morning, just twenty minutes before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was slated to tour the town, which borders Lebanon.

After the explosion, security officials changed Netanyahu’s itinerary and he did not visit the town as had been originally planned.

Embattled Metula is perhaps the community that’s been hardest hit by the near-daily missile, rocket, and drone launches by Hezbollah.

Recent estimates indicate that some 50 percent of the homes in Metula have been damaged or destroyed October 7th, 2023.

Nearly all of the residents of the twon were evacuated in the days after the Hamas massacres and have been displaced from their homes for more than a year, with no return date in sight.

While touring elsewhere in the north, Netanyahu stressed that the IDF will continue fighting to reclaim the north.

The premier said that Israel is prioritizing the return of internally displaced people to northern communities and will fight Hezbollah to achieve that goal, as the U.S> seeks to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

Critics have noted that the Lebanese state does not have the power to rein in the Hezbollah terror group, so negotiations with the country are pointless.

“With or without an agreement, the key to restoring calm and security is first to push Hezbollah beyond the Litani River,” Netanyahu said.

He added that the IDF is working to ensure that Hezbollah cannot regroup and rearm, and that the military is prime to “respond decisively to any action against us.”

Netanyahu said that after a year of Hezbollah bombardment on the north, there has been a change in both the reality on the ground and the direction of the war.In simple terms: enforcement, enforcement, enforcement – and cutting off Hezbollah’s supply line from Iran through Syria. We are fully committed to these goals.”

“On the northern border, one can see and hear…. our aircraft above and our brave fighters below, across the border, dismantling Hezbollah’s entire underground terror network that was prepared for an invasion into the Galilee and a massacre even worse than what happened” in southern Israel on October 7th, Netanyahu said.

“Our heroic reservists play a crucial role in our achievements. They put their lives on hold, leave their families, lose work and sometimes, tragically, lose friends. I just met with them, and their readiness and fighting spirit are deeply inspiring,” he added.