Israeli PM says further military action needed in Lebanon as Hezbollah retains 122mm rockets and drones despite ceasefire.
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said rockets and drones possessed by Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah remained a key threat that demanded further military action by Israel’s military in Lebanon.
Israel and Lebanese movement Hezbollah have traded blame over violations of the fragile 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon agreed earlier this month, which has since been extended, and attacks by both sides have continued.
“There are still two central threats from Hezbollah: the 122mm rockets and the drones. This demands a combination of operational and technological activity,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“They have about 10 percent of the missiles they had at the start of the war. But these still trouble the residents of the north,” he added.
“We are carrying out strikes now, both within the security zone and north of it, and north of the Litani River,” he said, reiterating Israel’s right to do so under its agreement “with the US and the Lebanese government”.
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 by firing rockets towards Israel to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.
Lebanon and Israel’s US ambassadors met twice in Washington over the past weeks, the first meetings of their kind in decades, for discussions that were categorically rejected by Hezbollah.
