Israel’s Foreign Minister Says ‘Moment of All-Out War’ Against Hezbollah Is Coming, Axios Reports

Israel’s Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said Saturday that Israel was preparing for an all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon after a rocket attack on a soccer stadium in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 10 people, Axios reported. “Hezbollah’s attack today has crossed all red lines, and there will be a response. We are approaching a moment of all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon,” Katz told Axios. The Iran-backed Lebanese group has denied any role in the attack.

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire almost daily since the war began in Gaza on October 7, when a surprise attack by Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages. Israel has launched an offensive that has killed more than 39,000 people, displaced more than 80 percent of the local population and created a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, according to local health officials.

In recent weeks, fighting between Lebanon and Israel has escalated, with Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks hitting increasingly farther and farther from the border.

Since early October, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed more than 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members, but also about 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed.