As war in Lebanon looms an Israeli army spokesman says 'we don't rule out invasion'

This article was originally published in Spanish

Hours after the death of the leader of Hezbollah, an Israeli army spokesman said Israel won’t rule out the possibility that it may invade Lebanon.

“It is an important day for all of us who fight against terror,” Roni Kaplan told Euronews from Tel Aviv on Saturday. “Nasrallah had the blood of thousands of people from these countries on his hands,” he added.

Earlier this week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel would attack Lebanon “with full force.” Netanyahu has said the Israelis who’ve been evacuated from their homes near the Lebanese border, which is in the range of many of Hezbollah’s rockets, must be able to return.

Kaplan insisted that the fighting won’t stop with Nasrallah’s death because “our ultimate goal is to stop the civilian population of Israel from being sheltered inside their own country”.

“We are talking more specifically about 60,000 people who had to leave their homes the moment Hezbollah joined Hamas in the fight against Israel after 7 October,” he added.

When will Israel stop attacking Lebanon?

Kaplan says that only “when Hezbollah stops flagrantly violating UN resolutions” will Israel stop fighting Hezbollah.

Earlier this month a UN resolution called on Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories that it continues to occupy, calling it an “unlawful presence.” Israel refuses to do so and it also continues to occupy the Golan Heights, which is a part of neighbouring Syria.

In the meantime Kaplan, the possibility of a ground invasion “is still on the table”.

“If Hezbollah does not move north to restore normalcy, we will continue gradually and with increasing intensity to strike the terrorist group and its leaders until the population can be safe. A ground invasion is not ruled out, but it is not confirmed either,” he said.

Hamas’s leader Yahya Sinwar who remains in Gaza, which Israel invaded last October, has so far avoided being assassinated by Israel, but he remains a top target. So far Israel has killed over 41,000 Gazans, many of them women and children, the enclave’s Health Ministry has stated.

“We haven’t reached him yet. We have reached other leaders, but we haven’t reached the supreme leader, but we will do it sooner or later,” Kaplan said, referring to Snwar.

Hamas fighters killed over 1,200 Israelis and took around 240 captive on Oct. 7th 2023, in an attack on southern Israel.