Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, chief of the IDF General Staff, visited Israeli troops on the border with Lebanon on Wednesday. Halevi warned Hezbollah to prepare for a very strong response to its attacks.
As tensions continue to mount between Israel and Lebanon, Jerusalem on Wednesday called up reserve brigades to its northern border and ordered them to be “prepared” as Israel stares down a “new phase of the campaign.”
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), a “number” of reservists were called up for “operational activities in the northern arena.”
Fox News Digital could not confirm the exact number of Israeli soldiers being called to the northern border, though government-sponsored public broadcasting Israeli news outlet KAN reported that at least two reserve brigades had been mobilized.
“You hear the jets overhead. We have been striking all day. This is both to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah,” Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, chief of the General Staff, said while speaking to his troops on the northern border. “Today, Hezbollah expanded its range of fire, and later today, they will receive a very strong response.”
“Prepare yourselves,” he added. “Today, we will continue. We are not stopping.”
The IDF said the order to mobilize reservists would further its combat operations against Hezbollah, as well as continue to secure the north to ensure Israelis can return to their homes in the region.
“We have entered a new phase of the campaign, and we must be fully prepared for maneuvering and action,” Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, head of the Northern Command, said following his assessment of the troops on the border Tuesday.
“We are now in Operation ‘Northern Arrows,’” he continued. “Facing this, we need to change the security situation, and we must be fully prepared for maneuvers and action.”
Israel has not formally announced any plans for a land invasion into Lebanon, but security experts have been warning for weeks that this is the likely next step as Jerusalem continues to ramp up its aerial campaign against Hezbollah.
Leaders from around the world have met at the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to address the world’s most pressing issues, and Israel’s war in Gaza, as well as its strikes in Lebanon, have dominated the week’s debate.
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Earlier this month, the Israeli prime minister’s office said Benjamin Netanyahu would be attending the top meeting in New York, though as the fighting along the northern border escalated over the last week it became increasingly unclear if he would actually make the trip.
Netanyahu’s office confirmed Wednesday that the prime minister will leave for the meeting Thursday instead of this evening as previously planned, and will address the UNGA on Friday with the intention of returning to Israel on Saturday.
It is unclear why exactly he postponed his departure, though it coincides with reporting Wednesday that said the entire Political-Security Cabinet will now convene this evening – a move that suggests proposals could be put forward that require a vote, according to KAN reporting.
Netanyahu’s office also confirmed Wednesday morning that the prime minister “will hold consultations with security officials in order to discuss the continuation of the attacks in Lebanon.”
In a statement to reporters, Netanyahu said, “I cannot elaborate on everything we are doing, but I can tell you one thing: we are determined to return the residents of the north safely to their homes.
“We are inflicting blows on Hezbollah that he did not imagine. We do it with power, we do it with guile. I promise you one thing – we will not rest until they return home,” he added.
By Wednesday afternoon local time, Israel had hit more than 280 Hezbollah targets in a one-day period and was continuing to conduct strikes against weapons storage facilities and other targets.
The barrage of missile fire came after Hezbollah launched what it claimed was a ballistic missile toward the headquarters of the Mossad intelligence agency in Tel Aviv.
The missile, which was intercepted, was fired by the terrorist network one day after Israel killed Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Muhammad Qubaisi in an airstrike in Beirut.
The exchange of fire continued after Lebanon saw its deadliest day of conflict since 2006 on Monday with nearly 500 people killed, according to local authorities, including more than 90 women and children.
