Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that he ordered the Israeli military to intensify its attacks on Lebanon, which came as US officials speaking to media outlets made clear Washington would support an Israeli escalation despite Iran maintaining that a real ceasefire in Lebanon is required for any deal with the US.
“I have ordered an even greater acceleration of our operations,” Netanyahu said in a video statement. “It is true that they are attacking us with drones, including fiber-optic drones, but we have teams working on countermeasures, and we will solve this issue … We will intensify our blows, increase our firepower, and we will crush them.”
Also on Monday, a US official speaking to Axios reporter Barak Ravid accused Hezbollah of violating the Lebanon ceasefire that was announced last month, but Israel never followed the truce as it continued its occupation and destruction of southern Lebanon.
“Hezbollah has ignored repeated requests to stop firing at Israel, including a recent ultimatum. Israel will never be expected to passively absorb attacks on its forces and civilians. This is not the Biden administration,” the official said, though during the Biden administration, Israel also repeatedly struck Lebanon under a Lebanon ceasefire deal that was signed in November 2024.
Israel violated the November 2024 ceasefire with regular attacks that killed hundreds of Lebanese, and Hezbollah didn’t fire back until March 2nd of this year, an attack the group said was a response to the US-Israeli killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel then escalated its invasion and attacks in Lebanon and has killed at least 3,185 in the country since March 2.
After a Lebanon ceasefire was announced last month, President Trump declared that Israel was “prohibited” from further strikes in the country, but the Israeli attacks continued. A major difference between Israel’s violations of the recent ceasefire and the November 2024 deal is the fact that Hezbollah is firing back at Israeli forces and has been successfully hitting Israeli troops with fiber-optic drones.
After Netanyahu’s announcement on Monday, Israel did appear to increase its attacks on Lebanon, and at least seven people were killed by the attacks in the south. The Iranian Foreign Ministry also reaffirmed that ending hostilities in Lebanon was part of its conditions for a deal with the US.
