The Deputy Chief of the General Staff Moshe Kaplinsky said that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would continue its operations in Lebanon, but expects the offensive to be complete “in a matter of weeks.”
In a joint press conference with Kaplinsky in Tel Aviv, Defense Minister Amir Peretz confirmed the summoning of three additional reserve battalions. The reserve soldiers will replace soldiers in Judea and Samaria who will be deployed to the north.
Kaplinsky said current IDF operations are directed against Hizballah, the terrorist organization that the Lebanese government failed to crack down on over the years.
Kaplinsky stressed that Israel has no interest in confrontations with Syria. He affirmed that the IDF’s objective is not the Lebanese army.
“The Lebanese army is not our enemy and we do not intend to hurt them unless they will participate with Hizballah.”
He called on the Lebanese army to return to a lifestyle of respect that was downtrodden over the years by Hizballah.
After the collapse of the building in Haifa on Monday, Peretz expressed that we must deal with these awful attacks.