Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz visited Lebanon today, marking their first trip to the country since Israel lifted its media blackout on military operations there.
2+The visit comes after weeks of restricted reporting on Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) activities in southern Lebanon. Israel had imposed the blackout to limit information about troop movements and operational details during its campaign against Hezbollah.
In his visit, Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “I come here together with the Defense Minister and with the Deputy Chief of Staff, and the Command Aluf and your commanders that I spoke with, the Division Commander and the Brigade Commanders, and I salute you. You did enormous work here, and essentially what we did – is we took the Iranian axis and began to crush it. We attacked Iran itself, something no one believed, and we removed an existential threat.
2+“The most important link in the Iranian axis was here – Hezbollah. There were 150 thousand missiles and rockets, which is the densest concentration of missiles and rockets on the planet. Today they have about 8% left. That’s still significant, but it’s no longer what it was. In your activity we eliminated 9,000 terrorists, hundreds of terrorists in recent weeks. And of course, the main thing we did – and this is what you are doing here – is to create buffer zones, security zones, not on our side of the border – on their side. So we are doing this in Lebanon. We did this in Gaza.”
2+In addition, Netanyahu talked about the deal with Lebanon and sent a stern warning toward Hezbollah and Iran. “Lebanon recognizes Israel, Israel recognizes Lebanon, and we’re also telling Iran and Hezbollah: get out of here, you have nothing to do here. There are two sovereign states, want to make peace between them, want to truly restore a reality of security and prosperity to the residents of the north and also to the residents of Lebanon. “You need to leave.” This is a slap in the face, this is a punch in the face of the Iranian axis, and it won’t necessarily pass quietly.
Neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the Defense Ministry immediately provided details about location of the visit within Lebanon.