Israel expands war goals on Lebanon border as U.S. tries to calm tensions

JERUSALEM - Top Israeli officials who met with a senior White House adviser said that military action will be needed to allow thousands of residents to go back to their homes along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, part of a growing focus by the government on the volatile region.

The warnings by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to Amos Hochstein, who was in Israel on Monday to try to calm tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, came against the backdrop of flaring frictions within Israel’s government and political pressure that analysts say could be pushing Netanyahu to further expand scope of the war.

Netanyahu, who had in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack urged restraint in escalating fighting with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia, told Hochstein this week that Israel appreciated U.S. support but would ultimately “do what is necessary to safeguard its security and return the residents of the north securely to their homes,” according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office. Meanwhile, Gallant said time is running out for an agreement with Hezbollah as the group continues to “tie itself” to Hamas. The only way to return tens of thousands of residents to their homes, he told Hochstein, is “via military action,” Gallant’s office said in a statement.

In an early Tuesday announcement, Israel’s security cabinet said it updated its war objectives to include “returning the residents of the north securely to their homes,” making official the expansion of aims that originally focused on eliminating Hamas and returning the hostages taken on Oct. 7.

The increased attention to Israel’s northern border - where Israeli forces and Hezbollah have been exchanging near-daily fire since Oct. 8 - came as Netanyahu’s office swatted down rumors that he plans to replace Gallant with United Right chairman Gideon Saar. Right-wing Israeli politicians cited the situation in the north while publicly urging Netanyahu to fire Gallant, but analysts said the flaring turmoil has more to do with internal politics.

Gallant, who is in Netanyahu’s Likud party, has emerged as one of Netanyahu’s most vocal critics on the war, publicly pushing for a cease-fire and hostage release deal with Hamas and warning last week that the window for any such agreement was closing.

Alon Pinkas, a veteran Israeli diplomat and former senior government adviser, said a sticking point between Netanyahu and Gallant was the defense minister’s refusal to support legislation that would protect ultra-Orthodox Israelis - who are key to Netanyahu’s coalition - from military service. Netanyahu also fears, Pinkas said, that Gallant could gather enough support within the coalition to oust him with a vote of no confidence.

“It is all political - it has to do with Netanyahu’s survival,” Pinkas said. “He knows that a war with Hezbollah is not going to expedite the return of people to their homes. In fact, a war with Hezbollah would be deadly, messy, problematic, and it could indefinitely delay people from returning to their homes.”

War with Israel would also be devastating in Lebanon, which is already suffering from a protracted economic collapse. The escalating tensions have already hit Syrian refugees in the impoverished south especially hard.

But Pinkas said the “atmosphere of war” helps shield Netanyahu from both problems within his coalition and potentially from the escalation of antiwar demonstrations. “He wants to prolong it,” he said.

Gayil Talshir, a professor of political science at Hebrew University, said pressure is likely coming from the United States not to replace Gallant with Saar, who has no military experience and has vowed to continue the war in Gaza and escalate fighting along the northern border. Gallant, meanwhile, has advocated for a cease-fire in Gaza, which could either calm tensions with Hezbollah or free up resources to expand the fight in the north.

“If Saar becomes defense minister, there is no finish to the war in Gaza, no bringing the hostages home and potentially a full-blown war with Lebanon,” she said. “It’s a completely different approach from what Israel wants from its warfare.”

Even though Netanyahu initially hoped to de-escalate along the northern border, it has become politically untenable to have so many of his supporters in the north displaced, Talshir said.

“It is not about what Netanyahu wants but who has the leverage to drag Netanyahu into doing what they want,” she said. “And his most extremist supporters want Israel having a military occupation of Gaza and a security zone in the southern part of Lebanon.”

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, said Monday on X that he has been calling on Netanyahu to fire Gallant for months. “A decision must be made about the North and Gallant is not the right man to make it,” he said in the post.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid told reporters Monday after meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington that Israel is trying its best “with our American friends to figure out a way to solve the conflict up north … without a full-scale war.”

“If not,” he said, “then we will have to act against Hezbollah.”

Pinkas said that on the northern border, Gallant was originally more hawkish than Netanyahu. Now, Pinkas said, Netanyahu’s bullish rhetoric on returning residents to their homes in the north by any means possible seems to have more to do with politics than a genuine belief in a war with Hezbollah.

Israel’s Defense Ministry announced Monday that as part of its security efforts along the northern border, 97 rapid-response units have been reequipped and more than 9,000 “cutting-edge ‘Arad’” rifles procured at a cost of about $13.5 million. The ministry said in a statement that the initiative - which includes providing combat and rescue gear, medical supplies and protective equipment - is “part of our policy to bolster border defense while enhancing self-reliant production capabilities.”

Here’s what else to know

- At least 2,800 people were injured Tuesday in Lebanon when electronic pagers used by Hezbollah simultaneously exploded across the country at 3:30 p.m., Lebanese officials said. At least nine people were reportedly killed in the explosions, which the militant group accused Israel of perpetrating.

- Blinken is traveling to Egypt on Tuesday, the State Department said, adding that he will “meet with Egyptian officials to discuss ongoing efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza that secures the release of all hostages.” He is expected to stay through Thursday.

- Israel “will do everything that is necessary” to make sure there is a hostage deal, Lapid said Monday, adding that “any political interest should be set aside” for it. Lapid said he was prepared to provide Netanyahu with “any necessary safety net in order to make the deal” and that Israel “will not heal” as a nation unless the hostages are returned home.” The United States continues to work with Egypt and Qatar on a revised cease-fire proposal, but there is no timeline yet for presenting it, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday.

- The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said she and President Joe Biden are outraged by the death of Aysenur Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish American activist whom Israeli forces acknowledged killing in the occupied West Bank. “This horrific tragedy should never have happened,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during a U.N. Security Council briefing Monday. “We will continue to demand details and continue to demand access into Israel’s investigation, and press for accountability, regarding the circumstances that led to Aysenur’s death.” The Israel Defense Forces said it was “very likely” that Eygi was hit “unintentionally” by one of its soldiers “during a violent riot,” but a Washington Post investigation found that Eygi was shot more than a half-hour after the height of confrontations.

- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the United States and Israel of trying to drag his country into a regional war with the July killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. “We have been restrained so far,” he said. “But we reserve the right to answer at a certain time.” Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of carrying out the assassination; Israel has not commented on the attack, but informed U.S. officials immediately afterward that it was responsible.

- At least 41,252 people have been killed and 95,497 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, including more than 300 soldiers, and it says 342 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.

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Soroka reported from Tel Aviv, Kasulis Cho from Seoul and Hassan from London. Susannah George in Dubai contributed to this report.