Gallant claims Israel foiled Hezbollah strike

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Sunday the Israeli army had foiled Hezbollah’s drone attack only minutes before it started that morning, adding that Tel Aviv is determined to “eliminate every threat on any front and at any time”.

“We’ve disrupted Hezbollah’s equilibrium, and their plan has failed,” Gallant said during a visit to the Israeli army’s Operations Directorate command centre.

“This morning’s strike sends a clear message to the region: we are resolute in removing any threat, on any front, at any time,” he said, adding that there was “a need for a comprehensive view of the battlefield to achieve objectives both in the north and the south” referring to the war in the besieged Gaza Strip.

“The enemy planned to launch many hundreds of rockets towards the northern communities. The pre-emptive action meant that over fifty percent, maybe two-thirds of them were not launched,” Gallant said.“We have to look at the overall view of the war. We are at a strategic crossroad and we need to take advantage of the negotiations to bring about the release of the hostages, and through the release of the hostages, to also open up the [possibility] of an agreement [with Hezbollah] in the north and later also to calm the region,” Gallant continued.

He pointed out that what happened sends two important messages: the first is that the army has diverse capabilities to destroy and attack the enemy’s capabilities while the other is that in the future, Israel is determined to carry out any operation in order to remove threats to citizens on every front and in every place and at any time and in any way. “Whoever harms the citizens of Israel, we will eliminate him, and this message is clear”.

READ: Israel pushes to delay ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant 

“We are operating militarily and are preparing as if we will not reach an agreement and we are ready at any moment for war in the north… but this is not our preferred way, and we still give a chance to the possibility of an agreement,” he added.

For his part, the Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, Herzi Halevi, said during a briefing at the Defence Ministry headquarters, “We are determined to change the security reality in the north so that residents can return to their homes safely”.“This morning, we thwarted a major Hezbollah attack on Israel, and we are determined to continue working to protect Israeli citizens everywhere” he added.

He claimed that while the army is fighting in the Gaza Strip to dismantle Hamas and recover the kidnapped, it is also fighting and continuing to harm Hezbollah in Lebanon which has “lost many strategic assets and hundreds of personnel since the beginning of the war”.

READ: ICC Prosecutor urges judges to urgently rule on warrants for Israeli, Hamas officials