Our diplomatic correspondent Sraya Harush addressed today (Wednesday) in Channel 14’s open studio the aggression recorded last night by the terror organization Hezbollah: “Recently, they’ve been using drones mainly for photography and intelligence gathering. Last night, their drone hit an IDF engineering vehicle, and the military defined this as a serious violation of the ceasefire. In other words: the IDF is signaling that it will have to respond.”
1+Harush added on the need to sharpen the equation with the terror organization: “There’s no escaping it, the days are over when you could whitewash words and say it was a false identification and so on. This is black and white. I don’t think, by the way, that this surprises anyone on the Israeli or American side.”
Israel is currently in a trap, especially against the backdrop of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s trip to the U.S., Sraya explained: “We saw last week the president of Lebanon arrive to Trump at the White House, receive a warm embrace and tailwind. It’s clear the Americans want to see the pilot in southern Lebanon succeed and not collapse after a week, after forces have already been deployed in the field. And so Israel finds itself in a problem: on one hand, we must respond to Hezbollah for the hit on the engineering vehicle, and on the other hand, American pressure is pushing to contain the incident and preserve the pilot in which American forces are also involved.”
1+On the other hand, Sraya presented another way to understand the incident: “Beyond the possibility that it’s Iran pushing Hezbollah to escalate, it’s possible the terror organization has its own reasons for the move: against the backdrop of the possibility of renewed massive action against Iran, Hezbollah understands that if Israel joins in, it will exploit the opportunity to strike the terror organization as well, being an Iranian proxy. Another reason behind the desire to escalate is the organization’s understanding that the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran ‘died’ as President Trump put it. Hezbollah is exploiting the opportunity to return to the equation, restore its influence, and apply efforts that will bring about the collapse of the pilot that threatens its standing. If there’s a major campaign now—the Lebanese army will retreat and Hezbollah will enter in its place and that will be the end of the pilot.”
As a reminder, last week a new security pilot launched in southern Lebanon, in which the Lebanese army deployed at several points from which the IDF withdrew, with the goal of preventing Hezbollah’s return to the area, with its success potentially influencing its expansion to additional areas along the border. Simultaneously and in accordance with the agreement with the state of Lebanon, the IDF maintains freedom of action in areas where the pilot doesn’t apply, and our forces operate in them to clear terror infrastructure and enemy forces.