Israeli army tanks are deployed in the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, in October 2024. (Credit: Illustration photo AFP)
The Israeli army began large-scale maneuvers in the Galilee region on Sunday evening, its Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, announced on his X account. These maneuvers are set to last until next Thursday, he added, and will extend along the entire border with Lebanon, “inside villages, in the coastal zone and on the home front.”
“During these maneuvers, the army will train for multilateral cooperation in order to face various scenarios, including the protection of this area and responding to immediate security threats,” he wrote.
He specified that “explosion noises will be heard during the exercises, combat methods against the enemy will be used, and drones as well as naval and air military units will be involved alongside the security forces.” The spokesperson continued: “These maneuvers were planned in advance as part of the annual training plan for 2025.”
The last conflict between Hezbollah and Israel officially ended on Nov. 27, 2024, with the signing of a cease-fire agreement, but Israel continues to attack Lebanon daily, killing more than 320 people since the truce and destroying homes, buildings, infrastructure and, recently, construction equipment.
Netanyahu read ‘a secret report’ before assassinating Nasrallah
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an interview on Israeli Channel 14 on Saturday evening, addressed, with some further detail, Israel's front with Hezbollah which opened on Oct. 8, 2023, and which Israel escalated into full-scale war on Sept. 23, 2024.
On Sept. 17 and 18, Israel detonated thousands of rigged pagers used by members of Hezbollah, killing dozens and maiming thousands. “We had set a date for the war in the North," Netanyahu revealed in the interview, "then I discovered that Hezbollah had sent two pagers to Iran for inspection. I asked: 'When did this happen?' They told me a week ago. I said: 'What?' Immediately, I gathered the heads of the security establishment, and we decided to launch the pager operation.”
Regarding Israel's assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27, 2024, by massive air strikes on the densely populated southern Beirut suburbs, Netanyahu said he “read a secret report showing that this assassination could break the axis of evil."
This is why, he said, he decided to carry out the operation without notifying the U.S. “If we had told the Americans that we were going to target Nasrallah, the information would have leaked within five minutes.”
Netanyahu also claimed to have made the decision without the full approval of his cabinet. It wasn't until he left the country for the U.S. that he then made the call. “I traveled to the United Nations to deliver my speech, and on the plane, through a secure line, I decided: Let's do it.”
He also said he expected “massive Iranian strikes after Nasrallah’s death, which in fact never occurred,” however he believes Israel's conflict with Iran “is not over.”
The Israeli prime minister also claimed “a total victory” in Gaza, stating that he had decided “to rename this front the ‘War of Recovery.’” In two years, Netanyahu claimed, the Israeli state has gone from facing an existential threat to becoming “a power that some call global.”
Updates from south Lebanon
Hezbollah announced on Sunday that the man killed by Israel while he was operating an excavator on Saturday, between Sour district's Deir Kifa and Bint Jbeil district's Kfar Dounin, was one of the party's fighters. Hezbollah did not specify whether the victim, whose name is Ahmad Baalbacki, had been operating the bulldozer on party business.
Israel has escalated its attacks on construction equipment and infrastructure in Lebanon in the last week, causing millions of dollars in damage. Israeli troops frequently conduct incursions into border villages to blow up homes and buildings and have bombed southern resident's attempts at rebuilding, targeting even prefabricated, temporary shelters.
The Israeli army claimed on X that the Saturday attack had targeted a Hezbollah member who "was using an engineering vehicle to try to restore infrastructure" that had been destroyed during the war.
An Israeli army patrol also entered Lebanon and patrolled around the Lake Mahafer, in Bint Jbeil district's Aitaroun, on Saturday evening, and the soldiers placed four concrete blocks there with a sign that read: "No entry, danger of death," before withdrawing again into Israel.
LFI calls for parliamentary debate on Iran, Lebanon, Gaza