Gallant warns: Hezbollah may hit Israel harder than Iran

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Wednesday that Hezbollah may hit Israel harder than Iran, noting that it may misread and downplay how hard Israel will hit back If civilians are killed.

While at a military drill in the North, Gallant said, “As things stand, Nasrallah may drag Lebanon into paying extremely heavy prices. The heaviest there are. They do not realize what could happen” to them.

The defense minister added, “if they looked at the pictures of Gaza, I believe they would understand, but sometimes logic is overcome.” he told the 646th Paratroopers Brigade of reservists.

Further, he stated that the situation could “deteriorate into a full war. This is not theoretical, but very real.”

Likewise, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi on Wednesday said that “we are at the high point of readiness” should Iran or Hezbollah attack, including ready to quickly go on the attack.

Moreover, Halevi said that Hamas’s decision to make Yahya Sinwar its overall political leader to replace Ismail Haniyeh will not give him any immunity from being killed for his masterminding of the October 7 mass slaughter of Israelis in the South.

Separately, IDF Arabic Spokesperson Avichay Adraee warned Gazan civilians in the Beit Hanoun area of Gaza, including those in the Manshiyya and Sheikh Zayed neighborhoods and those currently residing in shelters in the vicinity, to evacuate the area in a post to X, formerly Twitter, early Wednesday morning.

Beit Hanoun is a city located in the northern portion of the Gaza Strip.

Adraee noted that Hamas and other terrorist organizations were using the area to fire rockets at Israel, and the IDF was set to "act forcefully against them."

The Arabic-language spokesperson added that those in the area should immediately evacuate to shelters in central Gaza City.

The IDF did not provide updates on its forces entering those areas, but every time recently that the military has evacuated such an area, around a brigade of soldiers invades not long after to take apart any attempt by Hamas to reconstitute itself.

There have been close to 10 such reinvasions to date since the IDF first gained control of northern Gaza in mid-January and then withdrew from the area.

Rockets in Israel's South

All of this came after rocket alarms sounded in the southern Israeli localities of Ashkelon, Sderot, Ibim, Nir Am, and Zikim on Tuesday evening when Hamas fired three rockets from Beit Hanoun.

The military added that one of the rockets was intercepted by Israel's aerial defense array, and the others fell in open areas. No injuries were reported, but the IDF did not explain why it did not shoot down the other rockets.

Also, Israel struck Hamas targets in southern Gaza after dozens of rockets were fired over the last week from nearby two humanitarian aid warehouses, including UNRWA, at Israel, the IDF said on Wednesday morning.

The IDF added that after the air force conducted the targeted strikes on the launch sites, secondary explosions were detected, indicating the presence of additional weapons at the site.

The military noted that Hamas continues to systematically use civilian, as well as humanitarian, infrastructure to conduct its activities.

In the North, the IDF announced Wednesday morning that Air Force fighter jets struck a Hezbollah military base where terrorists were located and operating on Tuesday in the area of the Yaroun village in Lebanon.

In addition, the fighter jets also struck a Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure site in the area of Kfarkela in southern Lebanon.

On Tuesday,19 Israelis were wounded by Hezbollah’s drone attacks, according to the Galilee Medical Center in Safed.

The strikes come as tension remains high between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah after Israel killed Hezbollah's military commander, Fuad Shukr.

Israel's strike on Shukr came following a Hezbollah rocket launch, which resulted in the deaths of 12 children from the Druze town of Majdal Shams.

In addition, Iran has vowed to attack Israel directly following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday last week.