Hezbollah will make "the mistake of its life” if it goes to war with Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned during a visit with soldiers near the country’s northern border with Lebanon.
"If Hezbollah decides to enter the war” the IDF hit it with such strength that “it will long for the Second Lebanon War,” Netanyahu said.
It will be hit “with a force it cannot even imagine" with devastating consequences for both the terror group and Lebanon which hosts it, he said.
Netanyahu spoke amid global concern that the Gaza war with the Iranian proxy group Hamas on Israel’s southern could expand to include a second Iranian proxy group Hezbollah in the north.
Netanyahu met with officers serving on both borders and was given an assessment of operational strength in all sectors including in the West Bank.
Netanyahu praises the troops
He lauded those in the room who had battled Hamas in the south, explaining, “You fought with supreme bravery in Gaza, the stories are inspiring. I know you lost friends [and that this] it is a very, very difficult thing.”
But this is not just any conflict, he said, “we are in a battle for our life, a battle for our home.”
“I cannot tell you right now if Hezbollah will decide to fully enter the war,” Netanyahu stated.
Israel is engaged in a “double battle,” in which it’s incredibly important, he said, that those soldiers stationed in the north hold Hezbollah back.
“The second battle is to win an overwhelming victory [in the south] that wipes out Hamas,” Netanyahu stated.