News Digest — 7/1/26
Netanyahu In Lebanon: IDF To Stay In Region As Long As Hezbollah Continues To Pose A Threat
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the IDF will stay in the Security Zone within Lebanon until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat to Israel, during a visit to soldiers serving in the area on Tuesday (30th).
If soldiers recognize a threat, they are instructed to act in order to remove it, Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu was accompanied by Defense Minister Israel Katz, National Security Advisor Shmuel Ben-Ezra, IDF Deputy Chief of Staff MG. TamirYadai, and the PM’s Military Secretary MG. Guy Markizeno, and received briefings from IDF Northern Command Chief MG, Rafi Milo, 91st Division Chief BG. Yuval Gez, and other brigade commanders serving in the security zone.
“We are very proud of what we have achieved here thanks to your brave action and also the decisions made. Our insistence is that we do not leave southern Lebanon until the threat is neutralized. As long as Hezbollah is here, armed, threatening us, we will remain,” the prime minister said to the soldiers present.
“You have done huge work here; we have taken the Iranian axis and begun to crush it. We attacked Iran itself, something no one believed, and we removed an existential threat,” Netanyahu told the soldiers serving in southern Lebanon.
“Hezbollah was the most important link in the Iranian axis – and it was here – Hezbollah” he added.
The Lebanese terror group possessed “150,000 missiles and rockets which is the densest concentration of missiles and rockets on Earth,” he said
Out of these, 8% remain today, he added, saying that this was “still significant, but it is no longer what it was.”
Netanyahu also noted how the IDF operations in Lebanon have killed 9,000 terrorists, including “hundreds in recent weeks.”
“Of course, the main thing we did – and this is what you are doing here – is to create buffer zones, security zones – on their side of the border.”
“We are doing this in Lebanon, just as we did it in Gaza,” he stated.
“These security zones are a change in perception. It means we do not allow a terrorist army to sit on our border. We push them away – that is what you are doing, and we destroy everything above and underground that serves them essentially as a means of attacking us,” he continued.
“The most important thing you should know – first of all, our instruction, mine, the defense minister’s, the IDF chief and deputy chief of staff – is to protect yourselves. If you identify a threat to your security, to your life, to your soldiers – act. Do not wait. Act – this is an ironclad instruction,” he said.
“Because of what your actions achieved, Lebanon recognizes Israel and Israel recognizes Lebanon,” he said.
“We also say to Iran and to Hezbollah – ‘leave! You have nothing to do here! We are two sovereign states wanting to make peace, to truly return security and prosperity to the residents of the North and of Lebanon. You must leave,’” he stated.
“This is a slap in the face, a punch in the face of the Iranian axis, and it will not necessarily pass quietly,” he warned.
The briefing also included showing Netanyahu and Katz a display of ammunition and innovative weapons aiming to deal with the threat of Hezbollah’s first-person view (FPV) drones.
Paper Agreements Will Not Disarm Terrorists – Khaled Abu Toameh
For decades, Western diplomats and decision-makers have clung to the most dangerous belief that Islamist terrorist organizations can be persuaded through negotiations and diplomatic agreements to surrender their weapons and abandon their jihad (holy war) against Israel. More than seven months after President Trump unveiled his peace plan for Gaza, Hamas remains armed, entrenched, and firmly in control of large parts of the territory.
Now Washington has brokered another ambitious agreement – between Israel and Lebanon – that seeks to restore Lebanese sovereignty by eventually disarming Hezbollah and dismantling its military infrastructure. Unfortunately, the Lebanese agreement risks proving impossible to implement because it rests on a false assumption: that terrorist organizations honor agreements and voluntarily disarm.
Washington continues to negotiate as if Hams were a rational political movement rather than a jihadist organization whose declared objective is Israel’s destruction. It continues to recruit fighters, rebuild its military infrastructure and prepare for future attacks against Israel. Its leaders openly reject demands to disarm while insisting that the group’s weapons are “non-negotiable.”
The framework agreement signed between Israel and Lebanon deserves recognition for several positive elements. It formally commits both countries to pursue peaceful relations, seeks to restore the authority of the Lebanese state, provides for a process aimed at dismantling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, and includes an important provision designed to prevent reconstruction funds from reaching Hezbollah. The problem is that Hezbollah has already made clear that it has no intention of allowing the agreement to succeed. (Gatestone Institute)
The Lebanese Government Must Replace Hezbollah In Providing Services To The Population – MG. (res.) Yitzhak Gershon
The agreement between Israel and Lebanon is important because it reflects a deep shift in Lebanese consciousness, one born of painful reality. The Lebanese now understand that Hezbollah does not protect Lebanon. It destroys it. Hezbollah is not the Lebanese army, but an Iranian army operating on Lebanese soil, serving Iranian goals and sacrificing Lebanon’s national interest for Tehran’s strategy.
The real struggle will not be waged only against weapons depots, launchers or tunnels, but over the hearts of Lebanese citizens. If, after the Lebanese army enters the south, Iranian money also flows in for reconstruction and welfare, nothing fundamental will change. That is why the Lebanese government must arrive together with the Lebanese army to provide health care, welfare, education, jobs and community reconstruction. The citizen must feel that the state is his first address, not Hezbollah.
At the same time, Beirut must gradually dismantle Hezbollah’s civilian-economic – infrastructure: gas stations, service networks, businesses, welfare institutions and all the mechanisms that turned Hezbollah into a state within a state.
Israel can assist, openly when possible and discreetly when necessary. It can provide gas to help stabilize Lebanon’s energy sector, share intelligence that would help the Lebanese government confront Iranian attempts to reestablish itself, and act against regional threats before they reach Lebanese territory.
This is not generosity, it is policy. When Lebanon becomes a functioning and sovereign state, Israel will need fewer forces along the border, reduce the risk of another war, and improve its own national security.
The success of the agreement, therefore, depends not only on disarming Hezbollah but on replacing the source of authority in the eyes of the citizens. As long as citizens believe Hezbollah cares for them more than their own government does, it will find a way to rebuild.
For the first time in years, there is an alignment of interests between Israel, the Lebanese government, and most Lebanese citizens: a sovereign, functioning Lebanese state, free from the control of a foreign army.
The writer served as IDF Home Front Command chief and as deputy commander of Northern Command.
Israeli Border Communities Warn Of Emerging Attack-Drone Threat In West Bank
The quiet in Kibbutz Eyal, near Israel’s boundary with the West Bank, was briefly interrupted one morning this week by the roar of the U.S aerial refueling aircraft overhead.
Residents are accustomed to commercial aircraft approaching nearby Ben Gurion Airport, but the unusual noise startled some who feared it could signal what they see as an emerging security threat: small attack drones capable of carrying explosive payloads, similar to those widely used in the Russian-Ukraine war.
“We’ve already heard from the military that drones have been found in the West Bank, and when you look at what’s happening in Lebanon, you worry,” said Yuval, a resident of the kibbutz.
The concerns follow growing warnings from the security establishment. The military has identified Iranian efforts to expand the use of attack drones from Lebanon into the West Bank.
Security officials said the IDF’s working assumption is that such drones, also known as first-person-view (FPV) drones, are not yet operational in the West Bank. As a precaution, however, the military confiscates every drone it detects across the territory.
Senior security officials from communities near the West Bank told Ynet that dozens of drones have recently been located and seized by the military.
The head of the Drom HaSharon Regional Council, Oshrat Gani Gonen, said she believes the threat is no longer theoretical.
“There won’t be a long evolution here,” she said. “Some of them are manufacturing the drones themselves, and some are receiving them from Iran. This is also a real threat to Israel’s central cities. If a drone crosses the boundary line it could reach Tel Aviv in six minutes.”
The regional council includes 31 communities along Israel’s central frontier with the West Bank.Gani Goren said council officials have held ongoing discussions with MG. Avi Bluth, head of the military’s Central Command and with BG.Kobi Heller, commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, about the drone threat.
“We are the soft underbelly of the country, and we are demanding that the military protect us from this threat and provide us with every tool we need to defend ourselves,” she said.
She said local authorities are seeking radar coverage, electronic detection systems and counter-drone technology. “There are no civilian solutions, so the military has to provide them,” she said.
Gani Gonen added that residents will not feel secure until additional defensive measures are deployed. “We have a petition pending before the High Court of Justice demanding that the state provide $7 million for security so that we can operate a regional command center and purchase defensive equipment,” she said.
Local security officials say they are also preparing for the possibility of drone attacks.
Yoav Saban, the regional council’s security coordinator, said the issue was recently discussed at a meeting of security officers from communities along the seam line separating Israel from the West Bank.
“This is something we deal with everyday, so we discussed how civilian authorities should respond,” Saban said. “The drone threat exists across the entire sector. Every week, the military publishes the number of drones it has confiscated. It’s a real threat that must not catch us by surprise”
Even drones without advanced fiber-optic guidance systems can pose a danger, he said. “A standard commercial drone can still drop a fragmentation grenade on a kindergarten, for example,” Saban said. “The enemy is learning very quickly, and we need to be ready today. We need funding for detection systems so this entire sector is monitored, and for systems capable of bringing drones down. They need to be deployed along the seam line because we are the country’s front line.”
Saudi And Bahraini Journalists In Israel: “We Have A Common Enemy In Iran” – Ariel Oseran
During a visit to Israel, Saudi journalist Abdulaziz Alkhamis and Bahraini journalist Ahdeya Ahmed al-Sayed told a panel hosted by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs that Iran’s direct attacks on Gulf states have fundamentally altered regional perceptions.
Al-Sayed said, “We have a common enemy, and this enemy is not a theory anymore. It’s not proxies anymore. Iran actually directly attacked Gulf states with its ballistic missiles and drones, just as it attacked Israel and Jordan.”
Alkhamis argued that despite official rhetoric, many Arab governments privately welcomed Israel’s military campaign against Iran and its proxies. “Some countries are brave enough to say Israel did a very good job in this war and wanted Israel to continue. Others claimed Israel dragged them into the conflict, but nobody believes that… The main source of instability in the region is not Israel. It is extremism, and those countries that support extremists and their barbaric actions like October 7 – especially Iran.”
Jerusalem Center President Dan Diker said many governments across the Arab world quietly support Israel’s efforts to weaken Iran, even if they cannot publicly express that support. “Israel stands alone publicly, but has very quiet, even embarrassed, cheerleaders across the Arab world.”
“As Gulf Arab countries revisit decades of appeasement of Iran and distancing themselves from Israel, it is very possible that Israel will find itself partnering with countries that until now avoided any public affiliation.” (i24News)
