The Israeli military will hold Lebanon responsible for any failures to enforce a shaky ceasefire with Hizbollah, defence minister Israel Katz said as he threatened to widen any ensuing offensive to include parts of the country untouched by the conflict.
“If we return to war, we will act forcefully, we will go deeper, and the most important thing they need to know: that there will be no more exemption for the State of Lebanon,” he told the 146th division of the Israel Defense Forces, which is involved in operations in southern Lebanon, on Tuesday.
“If [until] now we separated between the State of Lebanon and Hizbollah, and between the whole of Beirut from Dahiyeh [Hizbollah’s southern stronghold in the capital], which took very severe blows — that will no longer be the case.”