Israel is shifting its military force north to focus on Hezbollah, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday, after thousands of pagers and radios belonging to the Lebanese paramilitary group were detonated in a devastating operation widely attributed to Israeli secret services.
Speaking to troops at Ramat David air base near Haifa, Gallant said that “a new stage” The war that Israel had been waging for almost a year was just beginning, focusing on Hezbollah rather than Hamas.
“The centre of gravity is shifting northwards. We are diverting forces, resources and energy to the north.” he said, according to a statement posted on social media by his office.
Hezbollah has waged a low-intensity military campaign against Israel since the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began shelling Gaza nearly a year ago. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said his goal is to keep Israeli forces close to the Israel-Lebanon border to prevent their deployment in Gaza, but Israeli officials – including Gallant – have repeatedly threatened to launch a major offensive in Lebanon in response.
Less than two months ago, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced that the Jewish state was preparing for “total war” with Hezbollah, adding that he would do so “not to go into details” about him “disproportionate” strike that would open such a war.
The attack apparently occurred on Tuesday, when thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah members spontaneously detonated across Lebanon, killing at least a dozen people, including two children, and wounding 3,000 others. A second wave of explosions took place on Wednesday, this time targeting handheld walkie-talkies. Wednesday's blasts killed at least 14 people and wounded nearly 500.
Although Israeli officials have not commented on the explosions, Lebanese, Israeli and American sources have identified Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency as the culprit. According to American and Israeli sources interviewed by Axios, the Mossad rigged thousands of communication devices to explode, intending to remotely trigger the explosions as the first strike in a full-scale war against Hezbollah.
The Mossad decided to detonate the devices early in case the explosive charges were discovered and the plan failed, a US official told Axios.
Although Gallant and other Israeli officials have threatened to escalate their campaign against Hezbollah on several occasions in recent months, the minister's comments on Wednesday were backed up by action, as the IDF's 98th Division was redeployed from Gaza to northern Israel earlier in the day.
In a statement on Wednesday, Hezbollah said it maintains “The Israeli enemy is fully responsible” for pager attacks, and promised a “Difficult calculation” for Israel in response.
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