Lebanese group "Hezbollah" was preparing an attack on Israel, "even bigger than the one on October 7" 2023 carried out by "Hamas" from Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this evening, in response to a question from two French media outlets, as quoted by AFP.
"100 meters, 200 meters from the border (on the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon - ed.) we found tunnels built to prepare for an invasion of Israel, an attack even bigger than the one on October 7 , with jeeps, with motorbikes, with rockets and shells", Netanyahu stressed.
"They (Hezbollah) were in the process of planning an invasion," he assured.
In mid-October, the head of the Israeli government stated to the French newspaper "Figaro" that in hiding places of "Hezbollah" in southern Lebanon, a "large amount of the latest Russian weapons" have been found.
After almost a year of exchanging blows with "Hezbollah" along the border with Lebanon, on September 23, Israel launched an intensive campaign of airstrikes against strongholds of the group, followed by a ground offensive in the south of the country on September 30, AFP recalls.
Israel claims it wants to keep the group "Hezbollah" away from its borders and to end its rocket attacks to allow some 60,000 displaced residents to return to their homes in the northern part of its territory. The pro-Iranian group claims to be acting in support of "Hamas". It opened a front against Israel on October 8, 2023, a day after the unprecedented attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.
According to an AFP count based on official figures, at least 1,552 people have been killed in Lebanon since the Israeli airstrikes campaign began on September 23. According to UN data, about 800,000 people have been displaced in the country, and according to the Lebanese authorities, nearly 500,000 people have fled to Syria.
At the end of his interview with a top journalist from the conservative media outlet CNews, Netanyahu thanked her for her media outlet's commitment to "fight for freedom, as you fight for the Judeo-Christian civilization that has given so much to the world and which is under attack from Islamic fundamentalism".