Israeli threatens to open second front if Lebanon doesn’t stop Hezbollah rocket strikes

A member of Israel’s war cabinet warned on Wednesday that the diplomatic “hourglass” was running out for Lebanon as the nation has failed to stop Hezbollah from firing rockets across the border.

Israeli government minister Benny Gantz derided the barrage from the Lebanese border — raising new fears of a second front of the war opening on Israel’s northern border.

“The hourglass for a political settlement is running out,” Gantz told reporters.

“If the world and Lebanon’s government will not work to stop the shooting at Israel and to distance Hezbollah from the border, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will do so.”

Hezbollah, a heavily militarized terrorist organization, holds a strong grip over southern Lebanon and began firing rockets into Israel a day after Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack.

At least 11 Israelis, including four civilians, have been killed by the strikes.

Around 150 Lebanese — mostly Hezbollah terrorists and 17 civilians — have been killed by Israeli counterstrikes. Thousands of civilians have been displaced on both sides of the border.

Gantz’s warning came after Hezbollah launched its most expansive assault yet on Wednesday, firing more rockets and drones at Israel than in any other single day since the assaults began.

For weeks, Israeli officials have been working diplomatic channels with Lebanon to have Hezbollah removed from the border region. Officials from the US and France have been dispatched to Beirut to assuage the tense standoff.

The diplomats have not had success.

“We are turning to every normal country, be it the United States, France, Arab countries – anyone who could somehow influence the situation and has some influence in Lebanon,” Yuli Edelstein, chairman of Israel’s parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said earlier in December.

Edelstein cautioned that failure in diplomacy could lead to a second front in the ongoing war.

The head of the IDF, Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen Herzi Halevi, echoed Gantz’s position this week, saying troops stationed in northern Israel were on “very high readiness.”

“Our first task is to restore security and the sense of security to the residents in the north, and this will take time,” he said, according to the BBC.

Hezbollah has praised Hamas’ brutal October 7 terror attack on Israel — which resulted in 1,500 largely civilian deaths and another 240 taken hostage. The Iranian terror proxy has been threatening to join the war ever since.

Just days after the attack, high-ranking Hezbollah Deputy Chief Naim Qassem said the group was “fully prepared” to join ranks with Hamas. Qassem described the move as a “duty” during an October rally where attendees chanted “Death to Israel.”

Like Hamas, Hezbollah is one of several Middle East extremist groups funded by Iran that refer to themselves as the “Axis of Resistance.”

Another member of the group, the Houthis in Yemen, are dedicated to the destruction of both the US and Israel and have critically disrupted Mediterranean commerce by attacking freighters passing through the Red Sea.

The efforts of the Axis appear to be a part of a wider Iranian campaign to eradicate Western influence from the Middle East, experts have cautioned, and have left the US and allies tiptoeing around the region to avoid sparking open conflict with Iran.

President Biden went so far as to convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt plans for a pre-emptive strike on Hezbollah shortly after the October 7 attack, according to reports.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made its attitude towards Hezbollah perfectly clear.

During a visit to the northern border earlier this month, Netanyahu said Israel was ready to “single-handedly turn Beirut and South Lebanon, not far from here, into Gaza.”