Netanyahu: Military action in Lebanon must continue despite ceasefire

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear that military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon will continue despite the ceasefire that entered into force on 17 April, citing what he described as a "double threat" from the Iran-backed group's remaining arsenal.

In a statement from his office on Monday, Netanyahu identified two persistent dangers: Hezbollah's 122mm rockets and its drone and unmanned aerial vehicle capability. 

"This requires a combination of operational and technological actions," he said, adding that Defence Minister Israel Katz and Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir were well aware of the challenge and that Israel was deploying "a very significant technological effort" to address it.

Netanyahu framed the military effort not as an obstacle to diplomacy, but as its prerequisite. "If we manage to solve these problems through a combination of operational and technological means, we will in reality be on the path to Hezbollah's disarmament, because this constitutes the essential part of its arsenal," he said.

He went further, suggesting that resolving the military threat would "allow the diplomatic aspect to be settled", though he offered no further detail on what that diplomatic resolution might look like.

In a striking assessment of the war's toll on Hezbollah, Netanyahu claimed the group now possesses only "around 10% of the missiles it had at the start of the war", a reference that appears to encompass the broader conflict that began when Hezbollah opened a "support front for Gaza" in October 2023.

Despite those losses, he acknowledged that the remaining arsenal "continues to disturb the residents of the north," praising their "resilience and tenacity" while making clear that Israel still has "two missions" to complete before it can consider the military phase concluded.

The remarks come as Israel and Lebanon have engaged in their first direct contacts since 1983, with ambassadors meeting in Washington earlier this month in talks that led to a three-week extension of the ceasefire. 

Netanyahu's insistence on continued military pressure sits in uneasy tension with that diplomatic opening, suggesting Jerusalem views the two tracks not as alternatives, but as simultaneous instruments of the same strategic objective.