Israel ‘shifted focus’ to Lebanon after failing to achieve goals in Gaza war: Report

The Israeli regime shifted its focus to the northern front by launching a ground invasion on Lebanon after the occupying entity failed to achieve any of its declared goals in the year-long genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip, says a senior Israeli security source.

Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth cited the Israeli source as saying that Tel Aviv’s aggression on southern Lebanon was aimed at returning the Israeli settlers who had fled due to intense retaliatory strikes by the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah on the northern occupied territories.

The ground invasion of southern Lebanon came nearly a year after Israel launched a devastating war on Gaza following a historic operation by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in decades.

"Israel went to war in the Gaza Strip a year ago with two main objectives: securing the release of prisoners and dismantling Hamas's capabilities,” the security source said.

“After failing to achieve either of these objectives, Israel shifted its focus to the northern front, adding a third goal: the return of northern settlers. However, it is unclear how it will achieve this goal.”

'Opening more and more fronts'

The senior Israeli security source told Yedioth Ahronoth that the regime intends to open “more fronts” by dragging Iran into the conflict after shifting its focus from Gaza and Lebanon.

“Israel is likely to withdraw again from Gaza and Lebanon, this time turning its focus to Iran, intending to strike and add new objectives to a war that has yet to meet any of its goals,” he said.

“There were those who believed that victory on the northern front could conclude the southern front, and now they think that delivering a blow to Iran might end the northern front, which in turn would end the southern front. But this only means opening more and more fronts.”

Hezbollah strikes Israeli settlement near Haifa with barrage of rockets

Hezbollah rockets targeted the Krayot settlement.

The source also pointed to the regime’s lack of strategy in its aggression on Gaza and its military offensives in other fronts across the region.

“The lack of a clear strategy in Gaza has turned into a strategy in itself; there is a significant gap between the vast military and intelligence capabilities to find targets and the inability to translate these into policies, agreements, and resolutions,” he said.

“The absence of a strategy has shifted from a tactical issue to a strategic one; the war no longer has clear boundaries, nor is it evident where it will lead us.”

Hezbollah fighters came out in defense of Palestinians after Tel Aviv launched a brutal genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in October 2023, which has so far killed nearly 42,000 people, mostly women and children.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon which started in October last year, according to the country's Health Ministry. . 

The Lebanese resistance has retaliated by near-daily targeting of northern areas in Israel, and indicated that its firing of rockets at Israeli targets will stop only when the regime completely ends its invasion of Gaza and southern Lebanon.

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