Netanyahu vows to attack Hezbollah ‘mercilessly throughout Lebanon, including Beirut’ after death of 4 soldiers

Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Monday that Israel will continue to attack Hezbollah ‘mercilessly throughout Lebanon, including Beirut’After yesterday, an attack by the Shiite group killed four Israeli soldiers, all aged 19, and injured 67 others at the Golani military base.

During a visit to the training base where the Hezbollah drone struck, the Israeli prime minister said the Hebrew country was conducting a campaign “against the Iranian axis of evil”as it generally refers to the alliance between the Ayatollah regime, Hezbollah, pro-Iranian Syrian militias, the Iraqi Islamic resistance and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The president also offered his condolences to the families of the fallen soldiers and addressed the soldiers who They are fighting for the “eternity of Israel”. “And the main thing is the spirit. The spirit that I see here; a strong spirit of soldiers, of doctors, of doctors. Warriors who understand that they are fighting for the eternity of Israel. “

Hezbollah drone attack on Golani baseIt’s difficult and has led to painful results“, as the Chief of General Staff of the Israeli Army, Herzi Halevi, recognized this Monday. He is, moreover, the worst attack on an Israeli military base since October 7.

Unprecedented attack

Netanyahu’s comments, in which he says he is continuing his attacks “across Lebanon,” come on a day when Israel bombs predominantly Christian area for the first time in northern Lebanon, where at least 18 people died in a single attack.

The attack hit a residential building in the town of Aitou, located southeast of Tripoli – one of Lebanon’s safest cities – where up to seven Lebanese Red Cross ambulances were moved to evacuate the 18 dead and direct the four other injured towards the area. hospitals.

So far, authorities have not released the identity of the deceased, although this is the first attack against this predominantly Christian area of ​​northern Lebanona country made up of 18 sects that try to coexist despite the great cultural and religious differences that exist between them.

And since Israel began its massive bombing campaign in late September, it has focused its attacks primarily on Shiite-majority areas in the south and east of Lebanon, but has recently begun hitting other communities in the Mediterranean country. to the north. and also in the capital, Beirut.

After that”new massacre”as local media described the attack, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health announced that Deaths now stand at 2,309 since the outbreak of violence between Israel and Hezbollah on October 9, 2023, the day after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip.

At the same time, Hezbollah claimed responsibility this Monday for the launch of volleys of rockets against a naval base northwest of the northern Israeli city of Haifa and against a military barracks east of the city of Netanya, after the formation killed four Israeli soldiers in an attack yesterday drone.

“The Islamic Resistance remains present and ready to defend our country and our strong and oppressed people, and will not hesitate to fulfill its duty to deter the enemy,” Hezbollah said, adding that these attacks were a response to the death of his leader. , Hasan Nasrallah, assassinated by Israel in the suburbs of Beirut at the end of September.

At the same time, the Shiite group announced that foiled several “infiltration” attempts and which clashed with several units of Israeli soldiers along the border in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops began a ground invasion earlier this month that met fierce resistance from Hezbollah.