IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir visited the area of the town of Taybeh in southern Lebanon on Wednesday and said the military is holding the “yellow line” defined by Israel’s political leadership.
“The mission assigned to us by the political echelon is to stand on the line that prevents direct fire on the communities. We have achieved that — this is the line where we are now,” Zamir said. “We may be required to remain on it. We will not tolerate attacks or fire on our communities, and we will not leave until security for the communities of the north is guaranteed over time.”
Zamir said the IDF continues to fight and is working to deepen its operational achievements and protect its forces.
“On the combat front, there is no ceasefire — you continue to fight, remove direct and indirect threats from the communities of the north, thwart terror infrastructure, locate and kill terrorists,” he said.
“We are in a historic war, and there is a generation of heroism here,” Zamir told them. “Heroic battalion and brigade commanders — there has been nothing like this since the generation of 1948. You are conducting exemplary battles here, and I salute you. We are fighting with an understanding of the magnitude of this hour.”
Zamir said Hezbollah draws its strength from Iran and added, “We severely damaged Iran. We destroyed most components of Iran’s defense industry, including the factories that manufacture weapons for Hezbollah.”
Addressing threats along Israel’s borders, he said: “We changed the concept. We will not allow a terror army on our borders. We will not let them prepare — there is no containment, there is action. We will continue to remove threats wherever they emerge. You are the exemplary generation doing this.”
Zamir added that “everything the political echelon defined for us regarding the current campaign in Iran and Lebanon, we achieved and beyond. In doing so, we created the operational conditions for the processes now being led by the political echelon.”
“Any threat, anywhere, to our communities or our forces — including beyond the yellow line and north of the Litani — will be removed,” he said. “Your mission and duty is to act with freedom of operation and remove every threat.”
He clarified that at this stage, the IDF is not advancing beyond the line, but added, “We will continue to act freely and remove threats. The forces on the ground continue to operate, and there is no restriction on thwarting infrastructure and killing terrorists.”