Israel has not claimed responsibility for this week’s audacious attacks using booby-trapped wireless devices against members of Hezbollah, but the country’s prime minister and defense minister issued statements on Wednesday making it clear that the military’s focus was shifting from the war in the Gaza Strip, south of Israel, to Lebanon, where Hezbollah operates.
“The center of gravity is moving north, meaning that we are allocating forces, resources and energy for the northern arena,” Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said on Wednesday in an address to troops at an air base in northern Israel. “We are at the start of a new phase in the war.”
Mr. Gallant’s comments came just after Israel’s cabinet officially adopted a new, formal war goal this week: ensuring that tens of thousands of residents of northern Israel who have been displaced by attacks from Hezbollah can return safely to their homes.
Later on Wednesday, as the exploding-attacks continued, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a video statement emphasizing the same goal. “I already said that we would return the residents of the North securely to their homes, and that is exactly what we will do,” he said.
Hezbollah, a militant group designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, has been targeting northern Israel with rockets and drones since last year in solidarity with Hamas and its war against Israel in Gaza. Both militant groups are supported by Iran and want to eliminate the state of Israel.
The daily exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel has been destructive, disruptive and sometimes deadly for Israelis and Lebanese living along the border, and it has raised concerns among world leaders that a wider regional war could break out and draw in Iran.
For months, international diplomats have been working to avert that outcome. There was, until recently, hope that a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the fighting in Gaza in exchange for the release of dozens of hostages kidnapped from Israel would also resolve the conflict with Hezbollah. But the cease-fire talks have stalled, and tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have been steadily mounting in recent months.
In July, Israeli forces struck a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, and assassinated a top Hezbollah commmander, Fuad Shukr. The Israeli military said Mr. Shukr’s killing was in response to a rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights that killed a dozen children in Majdal Shams, a Druze Arab village, though Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for that strike. Hezbollah vowed to avenge Mr. Shukr’s death, and in late August it launched about 300 rockets into Israel, claiming that it struck an Israeli military target.
Military experts have noted that so far Israel and Hezbollah have exercised relative restraint. But there are fears that the conflict may escalate if a diplomatic resolution does not come soon. Israeli officials on Wednesday appeared to be signaling that such an escalation was fast approaching.
The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, on Wednesday reviewed contingency plans for a possible conflict with Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border, according to a military statement.
“We are very determined to create the security conditions that will return the residents to their homes, to the communities, with a high level of security, and we are ready to do all that is required to bring about these things,” General Halevi said, adding that “at each stage, the price for Hezbollah must be high.”
Still, Israeli leaders are bracing for a difficult fight. In his address on Wednesday, Mr. Gallant said that Hezbollah would be a more challenging opponent than Hamas had been in Gaza. “It’s not Hamas,” he said. “This is something else, and we need to prepare for this accordingly and take it into account.”
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