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Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday said that either drone threats from Lebanon will stop existing or Hezbollah itself will stop existing.
Speaking from an IDF position in Lebanon in a meeting with Division 146 Commander Brig.-Gen. Yiftah Norkin, Katz stated, “Israel will not accept the launching of drones from Lebanon.” Several days ago, the IDF shot down a drone within Lebanese territory that did not appear to be attacking but rather collecting intelligence about Israeli defense positions.
“I advise the successor of the successor of Nasrallah not to make a mistake regarding Israeli determination as his predecessors did – lest he pay a heavy price,” the defense minister said.
Katz was referring to Hassan Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for over 30 years until he was killed by the IDF on September 27, after which he was briefly replaced by Hashem Safieddine, who himself was killed on October 3, after which he was replaced by Hezbollah’s current leader, Naim Qassem.
Ceasefire extended to February 18
However, after Israel asked for a 30-day extension, saying that the Lebanese military had still inadequately enforced preventing Hezbollah from returning to southern Lebanon, the US and Lebanon agreed to extend the IDF withdrawal deadline to at least February 18.
Throughout essentially the whole ceasefire, Hezbollah has been careful not to fire on Israeli territory, but it has regularly probed IDF positions from the ground and recently used a drone from the air. In Gaza, the air force had fired on two separate cars – one in the morning and one in the early afternoon – both of which tried to avoid inspection moving from central Gaza to northern Gaza.
Unconfirmed reports stated that at least one person was killed and several were wounded in one of the incidents, with no clear reports on the second. Reports first started to stream out about the event around 9:45 a.m. Sources confirmed the strike at around 1:00 p.m., but the military remained publicly silent for more than another hour.
Video footage on social media appeared to show a vehicle on a road moving northward near the Mediterranean Sea suddenly exploding. In the morning incident, the IDF said it only undertook distancing or warning fire but was probing how the episode had turned out.
However, the IDF did not address whether the car’s passengers could have been arrested or if they presented any immediate danger, signifying that current rules of engagement for cars that avoid a check may be to strike the car from the air without attempting an arrest.
Military sources later confirmed that firing from the air is currently the main option available to the military in such a case.
It may be more difficult for the IDF to carry out an arrest given that it has withdrawn much of its forces to external defense lines, and many of the inspections are now reportedly being carried out by a mix of private contractors, and American and Egyptian military inspectors.
The IDF did not say how many people were killed or wounded in either incident. To date, since the January 19 ceasefire, there have been very few such incidents; generally, there has been almost no fighting at all.
Where there have been minor departures from the ceasefire, it was mostly brief attempts by Gazans to probe Israeli interim defense withdrawal lines to see if they could get through or how close they could get, with IDF forces responding with distancing fire.
It was unclear if the incidents were a limited move to stop narrow violations or part of some larger strategy, or if they were related from the perspective of Gazan terror.
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