Netanyahu Says Israel Could Soon End Intense Phase of Gaza War, Shift Focus to Lebanon

Last updated on August 7th, 2024 at 04:28 pm

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated he plans to wind down the most intense phase of the fighting in the Gaza Strip soon, and turn much of the Israeli military’s attention north, toward the border with Lebanon.

Sitting for an interview with Israel’s Channel 14 on June 23, Netanyahu insisted he still plans to dismantle Hamas’s ability to govern the Gaza Strip or fight militarily, and to free captives taken by Hamas fighters on Oct. 7, but insisted the most intense phase of fighting in the Gaza Strip will soon end. This, he said, will free up Israel’s warfighting capacity to focus north on a burgeoning cross-border fight with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israeli troops have clashed with Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border for months, while much of the Israeli military’s attention has been focused in the south on the military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and unrest in the West Bank. The increasing intensity of this border conflict has led Israeli authorities to evacuate civilians from the north.

“After the intense phase is finished [in Gaza], we will have the possibility to move part of the forces north,” Netanyahu told Channel 14. “And we will do this first and foremost for defensive purposes. And secondly, to bring our [evacuated] residents home.”

Netanyahu’s remarks come just days after the Israeli military announced it had prepared and approved plans for an offensive inside Lebanon.

Last week, Hezbollah released footage showing a drone’s-eye view of civilian-populated areas near the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, suggesting their ability and willingness to strike further inside Israel and intensify the fighting beyond the current border conflict.

Netanyahu told Channel 14 he is willing to resolve the current cross-border dispute with Hezbollah through diplomacy but is just as ready to “do it another way.”

Should the Israeli military march on Lebanon, it risks further inflaming the region and transforming Israel’s current campaign in the Gaza Strip into a more intense multi-front war.

The Houthis, a Zaidi Shiite Islamic faction that has fought in an internal conflict inside Yemen for more than a decade, has also turned its attention toward the ongoing Gaza conflict. The Yemeni faction has claimed solidarity with the Palestinian people inside Gaza and has launched drones and missiles towards Israel and struck several commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea as a means of disrupting merchant traffic they believe to be connected to Israel.

Even as Netanyahu told Channel 14 he is looking to refocus attention to the north, he indicated there’s still a ways to go before his objectives in the Gaza Strip are met.

Hamas and other Palestinian militants took around 240 captives on Oct. 7. Hamas released more than 100 of these captives, Israeli forces have rescued a few others, and several more have been killed in the course of Israel’s military campaign across the territory.