Netanyahu Warns of Tough Response if Israel Comes Under Attack
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that any future attack on Israel would bring even harsher retaliation, as he praised the recent destruction of a Hezbollah tunnel network in southern Lebanon as a major victory and pledged to keep dismantling what he called terrorist infrastructure.
In a video released by his office, Netanyahu cautioned Israel’s adversaries that if the lesson hasn’t sunk in and they choose to strike again, they will suffer even heavier blows, adding that there is still work left to finish.
The comments followed Thursday’s demolition of what Israel described as an extensive tunnel system beneath the Ali Al-Taher ridge, which it said had served as a Hezbollah command center, living quarters and weapons storage site used to threaten northern Israel and advancing Israeli forces. The explosion produced a large fireball visible in the area, with the US Geological Survey recording a tremor equivalent to a 4.1 magnitude earthquake. The strike came a week after Israeli troops said they had taken control of the strategic highlands as part of consolidating what Israel calls a security zone in southern Lebanon.
Israel says the tunnel network took roughly two decades to build with support from Iran, Hezbollah’s main patron, which also backs Hamas in Gaza. The broader conflict traces back to late February, when Israel and the United States struck Iran, prompting Hezbollah to fire rockets into Israel in a show of solidarity that drew Lebanon into the war. Israeli forces have carried out repeated strikes in southern Lebanon since and continue to occupy the area they refer to as a security zone.
The Ali Al-Taher ridge sits at the edge of that zone, just a few kilometers from the UNESCO-listed Beaufort Castle, another strategic site Israel has captured in recent months. In late June, Israel and Lebanon signed a US-brokered framework agreement outlining Hezbollah’s disarmament, a phased Israeli troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon, and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, beginning with designated pilot zones.
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