Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives to chair a weekly cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem on Feb. 5, 2023. (Credit: Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool via Reuters)
BEIRUT — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah against building on a "fratricidal war" between the Israelis.
Nasrallah suggested in a speech earlier this week that the situation in Israel could escalate to a civil war.
In the past weeks, mass protests are regularly organized against the government's controversial judicial reform plan, which aims to give lawmakers substantially more control over the supreme court.
"I say to Nasrallah: don't build on a fratricidal war. It won't happen, because we really are brothers." Netanyahu said
Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Thursday: "For the first time in the history of the zionist entity [Israel] since its unfortunate creation, we are hearing from the head of the Chief Staff [of the Israeli army], former prime ministers, Lapid, Bennet, Olmert, Ihud Barack, and former ministers of defense ... former generals, talks about the closeness of a civil war, they are talking about blood being shed and that there is no solution for the new challenges from the government of Netanyahu."
The protests against Netanyahu and his government have intensified in recent months.
On Dec. 29, 2022, Netanyahu was reelected as prime minister, inaugurating the country’s most far-right, religiously conservative government in history. Netanyahu previously served as Prime Minister between 1996 and 1999, then again between 2009 and 2021.