Benjamin Netanyahu: we will return to “an intensive war” if Hezbollah violates the truce agreement

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahuthreatened this Thursday to return to an open war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, less than 48 hours after the start of the truce, if the pro-Iran group extensively violates the ceasefire conditions.

“If there is a major violation of the agreement, we will not only operate surgically as we are doing now,” he said. Netanyahu in an interview with the far-right Channel 14. “If there is a major violation of the agreement, I will order the Armed Forces to prepare for intensive war”he added.

In the interview, Netanyahu highlighted that the ceasefire in Lebanon “may be brief” and that Israel “enforced it on its first day,” according to statements reported by the Times of Israel newspaper.

The agreement states that “these commitments do not prevent Israel or Lebanon from exercising their inherent right of self-defense, in accordance with International Law.”

Netanyahu He said Tuesday night, announcing the deal, that Israel would “maintain full freedom of military action” in the Lebanon “with the full understanding of the United States.” Lebanese authorities said they opposed any violation of their sovereignty.

The residents of the north “will return in stages, when they feel that what I say is true,” the president predicted, according to the Israeli press, about the 60,000 displaced from the northmany of them critical of the end of this war.

This second day of truce was punctuated by disagreement between the parties on the right of Israel a atacar a Hezbollah if he considers that the militiamen have violated the agreement, something that Netanyahu noted as a prerequisite, but which Lebanese and Hezbollah officials reject.

The Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati urged this Thursday in a call with the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, that the international community increase pressure on Israel, considering that it violated the agreement after carrying out air raids and attacks with various weapons against Lebanese territory.

For his part, the Israeli army accused Hezbollah of having broken the conditions of the agreement and confirmed having attacked two suspected militants inside a building “used to fire dozens of projectiles into Israel last month,” in addition to other airstrikes against weapons in southern Lebanon.

The agreement, negotiated by United States and France includes an initial two-month ceasefire during which Hezbollah will withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces will leave Lebanon to make way for Lebanese troops and peacekeepers from the HIM along the border.