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Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz
Tel Aviv: Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has threatened Lebanon to pay a heavy price for Hezbollah’s construction of ammunition and missile depots inside residential complexes, he said.
This happened in a speech by Gantz during his participation in the ceremony to commemorate the dead of the “helicopter disaster”, more than two decades ago.
In February 1997, 73 Israeli soldiers were killed after two helicopters collided on their way to an army position in southern Lebanon during the war against Hezbollah.
“Three and a half years after the disaster, we left Lebanon after its land was stained with the blood of our martyrs,” Gantz said, according to Israel’s Channel Seven.
He continued: “Since then, we have repeatedly made it clear that we will not allow Hezbollah and the Iranians to turn Lebanon into a terrorist state.”
“Until today, the Israeli army has been operating and will continue to operate on the border line and beyond,” Gantz said.
The Israeli defense minister said his country’s military would not hesitate to target what it described as the Iranian positioning near the Israeli border.
“(Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan) Nasrallah knows very well that his decision to build ammunition and missile depots, and to develop the organization’s capabilities, exposes him as much as the Lebanese citizens to danger,” he added.
Gantz added that the Lebanese government should “know this and take responsibility.”
He threatened: “If a front (battle) is opened in the north, the state of Lebanon will be the one that pays the high price for the weapons scattered in the concentrations of civilians.”
On January 26, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi threatened to hit targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, even if they were in “urban areas.”
(Anatolia)
