JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday that the military would press on with its aerial bombing campaign against Hezbollah, as Israeli jets pounded the Iran-backed Lebanese group’s sites.
“We will continue to hit Hezbollah… the one who has a missile in his living room and a rocket in his home will not have a home,” Netanyahu said in a statement after visiting an Israeli intelligence base.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant echoed Netanyahu’s remarks in a speech to troops Tuesday, telling them: “We must continue until we achieve our goal – to ensure the safe return of Israel’s northern residents to their homes.”
Gallant contrasted the fight with Hezbollah with that against Gaza’s Hamas.
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“Hezbollah is not Hamas, there are similarities but also differences,” he said.
“The terrain looks different, the enemy looks different, the threats and challenges are different,” he said.
He added that Hezbollah had suffered severe blows over the past week.
“Hezbollah today is not the same Hezbollah we knew a week ago,” Gallant said.
But he said that “we have more strikes ready”, after Lebanese authorities reported at least 558 people were killed in Israel’s raids on Monday, and thousands displaced.
Longtime foes Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in near-daily exchanges of cross-border fire since Palestinian Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, sparking war in Gaza.
Hezbollah claimed 18 attacks on Israel on Tuesday, while the Israeli military said the group fired about 300 rockets across the border.
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