A senior IDF official said Saturday that it’s impossible to avoid significant and widespread conformation with Hezbollah in Lebanon, after nearly seven months of warfare that included exchanges of fire and clashes between the sides.
The senior official told the Wall Street Journal on condition of anonymity, “There is a way out and it’s to escalate. Israel cannot stop right now. It’s dangerous for the whole region.”
While these statements come from Jerusalem, threats are being sent to senior Israeli officials by the terrorist organization. Hezbollah’s Deputy Director-General Naim Qasem addressed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, saying, "He should know that he won’t bring northern Israelis to their homes through war. The war will only push their return further back, and they may not return at all."
He added that the ongoing Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, which come in retaliation to missiles fired from the country into northern Israel, won’t make northern Israelis return either. "Expanding these attacks will make their return more difficult. Hezbollah has decided to respond to the attacks proportionately, so any increase of attacks will be met with an expansion of Hezbollah and the resistance in Lebanon’s response."
In an attempt to lower escalations on the northern border, Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese news outlet Al Akhbar reported that U.S. President Joe Biden's envoy to the Middle East Amos Hochstein, "might visit Beirut to examine the possibility of lowering escalation on the Lebanon border."
The report noted that Hochstein is working to remind the sides to act by "the rules of the confrontation," but the U.S. believes calm on the border won’t be achieved before an agreement that includes ending the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah has so far opposed American and French efforts to reduce the intensity of the fighting in the north. The terror group claims it, "must exert pressure on Israel" to assist the Palestinian people in the war in Gaza. French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné is expected to visit Lebanon soon in an attempt to continue mediation efforts.
A source the Wall Street Journal reported was “familiar with Hezbollah’s internal thinking,” told the outlet the organization believes in the "escalation to de-escalate" strategy, which exposes the organization to risks but may ultimately lead to calm. Part of this policy, noted in the American newspaper, involves “gradually revealing” Hezbollah's hidden military capabilities.