Katz on Lebanon flare-up: ‘No score in any arena will remain unsettled’

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X on Sunday that “no score in any arena will remain unsettled.”

His statement followed a suicide drone attack by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist group that seriously wounded an Israel Defense Forces officer and two soldiers in Southern Lebanon. The three were evacuated to a hospital and their families notified. They were stationed in the Security Zone in accordance with the framework agreement signed in June with the Lebanese government.

“We will forcefully defend our soldiers and citizens,” Katz wrote.

The escalation in Lebanon started at around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, according to Israel’s Channel 12 broadcaster. The suicide drone was launched at IDF forces from the Commando Brigade combat team operating in the Ali Taher Ridge area in southeastern Lebanon, according to the report.

The wounded officer and soldiers were evacuated to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. Two of them are in serious condition and are sedated and on ventilators in the intensive care unit, while the condition of the third has stabilized and is now classified as moderate, Channel 12 reported.

Overnight Saturday, the IDF eliminated a senior commander in Hezbollah’s Badr Unit in a strike in the Deir ez-Zahrani area of Southern Lebanon, the military said on Sunday.

Abu Hassan Alaa advanced numerous attacks on Israeli soldiers operating in the security zone, including drone attacks, according to the IDF.

In recent years, the terrorist “commanded several combat sectors in the Hezbollah terrorist organization that operated against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians,” the military said.

“The IDF will not allow the Hezbollah terrorist organization to harm Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, and will continue to operate to remove threats,” the military added.

The Israeli military killed another Hezbollah commander the previous night in the Ansar area in southwestern Lebanon.

The IDF identified Ali Samir al-Haj Hassan as a battalion commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force. Several other terrorists were killed in the strike as well, the army continued.

Following the elimination, Lebanese media reported that IDF airstrikes in several locations killed nine people in total, including women and children, according to Ynet.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam slammed Israel’s retaliatory strikes, saying on X in Arabic that it “undermines efforts to stabilize the situation in the south.”

He further stated that the responsibility for dealing with terrorist infrastructure, “if it exists,” on the Lebanese side lies with the Lebanese state.

The IDF in response said that the strike on the Radwan Force commander was specifically directed at Hassan, “who was a lawful target under international law.”

It further emphasized that it targeted him inside a military headquarters. “The terrorist used his family as human shields, hiding alongside them inside the military headquarters,” the army added.

Israel: Negotiations with Beirut must continue more urgently

On Saturday night, Israel’s Foreign Ministry lashed out at the Iranian proxy group’s “cynical tactic” of embedding its military activity among civilians.

“A Hezbollah commander placed his own family inside the group’s military stronghold, using them as human shields,” the ministry wrote on X.

This use of human shields “must be condemned,” it added.

Meanwhile, U.S Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa told reporters in Arabic that while no date for further Israeli-Lebanese negotiations has been set, “they will continue,” reported Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International.

Asked whether Washington supports Israel’s latest round of strikes, Issa replied, “I don’t know. You know more than I do.” Israeli operations in Southern Lebanon will stop when Hezbollah lays down its weapons, he continued. “Everything will stop,” he added.

Issa spoke with reporters after meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut.

The latest flare-up in Lebanon should “jump-start the talks” with Beirut and “make them much more serious, not do the opposite,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Doron Spielman told AFP.

“And I think it will. It will hopefully move these talks along, because the enemy here is clear and the enemy is Hezbollah,” he added.

Lebanese military subjected to ‘humiliation,’ Hezbollah chief says

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee lashed out at Hezbollah, calling it “pure evil.”

Hezbollah wounds Israeli troops, then “rounds up children” in a military compound knowing that Israel will retaliate because Iran’s proxy group “want[s] them to be in harm’s way,” he said.

He equated Hezbollah’s conduct with that of Hamas.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter voiced criticism as well, denouncing the Radwan Force commander for using “his own family as human shields inside a Hezbollah military headquarters.”

Leiter stated on X, “If the Lebanese government uses this incident as a pretext to delay or discontinue peace talks, it would hand a tactical victory to the enemies of peace. Derailing the talks is precisely what Hezbollah is trying to achieve.”

Meanwhile on Friday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem accused the Lebanese government of subjecting Lebanon’s armed forces to “bombardment and Israeli pressures” by dispatching it to enforce the trilateral framework signed in June between Beirut and Jerusalem, and brokered by Washington.

“How can you accept this ongoing humiliation of the Lebanese army?” AFP quoted him as saying.

“Where is the patriotism? Where is the dignity of the army that ought to be preserved?” the terrorist chief asked.