Netanyahu and Katz Visit Security Zone in Southern Lebanon: "We Will Not Allow a Terror Army to Sit on the Border"

(Photo: Omer Miron, GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the security zone in southern Lebanon today (Tuesday), together with Defense Minister Israel Katz and Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai. During the visit, the three received an operational briefing from Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, the commander of the 91st Division, and brigade commanders operating in the sector. They were also shown a display of ammunition and innovative weapons systems designed to address the drone threat.

During the visit, he said: "The most important link in the Iranian axis was here — Hezbollah. There were 150,000 missiles and rockets here, the densest concentration of missiles and rockets anywhere on earth. Today, about 8% remains. That is still significant, but it is no longer what it was." Speaking to the soldiers, he added: "Through your operations, we eliminated 9,000 terrorists, including hundreds in recent weeks."

Netanyahu said that one of the goals of the operation is to create security zones beyond Israel’s border, not inside Israeli territory: "The main thing we did — and what you are doing here — is to create buffer zones, security zones, not on our side of the border, but on theirs. That’s what we are doing in Lebanon. We did it in Gaza too."

According to him, the operation also includes destroying all infrastructure used by Hezbollah: "We are not allowing a terrorist army to sit on our border. We are pushing them back — that is what you are doing. And we are destroying everything above ground and below ground that served them as a means of attack against us. Infiltration routes, attack positions, terror tunnels, terror villages — all of that is going. The instruction is clear: leave nothing behind, and that is what you are doing."

Later in his remarks, the prime minister addressed the soldiers directly and made clear that protecting their personal safety is the top priority: "I think the most important thing for you to know is this: first and foremost, our instruction — mine, the defense minister’s, the chief of staff’s, and the deputy chief of staff’s — is to protect yourselves. If you identify a threat to your safety, to your lives, or to the lives of your soldiers — act. Do not wait. Act. That is an ironclad order."

He continued: "Because of what we have achieved through your actions here, Lebanon recognizes Israel, Israel recognizes Lebanon, and we are saying to both Iran and Hezbollah: get out of here, you have no business being here. There are two sovereign states that want to make peace between them, that want to restore a true reality of security and prosperity for the residents of the north and for the residents of Lebanon as well. 'You need to leave.' It is a slap in the face, a punch to the face of the Iranian axis, and it will not necessarily pass quietly."

In closing, he said: "We are very proud of what we have achieved thanks to your brave actions and the decisions we made. Our insistence is that we will not leave southern Lebanon until the threat is gone. And as long as Hezbollah, armed, is here and threatening us — we will remain here."

נתניהו וכ"ץ בלבנון (צילום: חיים צח, לע״מ)

נתניהו וכ"ץ בלבנון (צילום: חיים צח, לע״מ)