Escalation on the northern front as Netanyahu sets 'eliminating Hezbollah' as the ultimate goal, and Israel heads to 27 October elections
On 18 October, positions and preparations escalated on the northern front, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a radio interview that Israel's ultimate goal is to eliminate Hezbollah, noting that he does not trust the Lebanese government on the issue of disarming the group. In parallel, the Israeli army raised its alert level on its northern front and deployed the 36th and 91st divisions in the Golan Heights and southern Lebanon at the highest levels of readiness, according to the newspaper Maariv, which quoted Lebanese sources as saying that Hezbollah had received a green light from Iran to raise its readiness, with movements including the recruitment of operatives and the preparation of defensive systems in the Bekaa, the coast and the southern suburbs. According to Israeli assessments, the group may initiate an operation against Israeli forces, from attacking a fortified position to targeting a patrol or attempting to kidnap soldiers, while an Israeli military source said Iran stands behind the escalation. In this context, the newspaper Israel Hayom reported that the Israeli government's meeting was held today at a secure underground site.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that between 70 and 80 percent of the Gaza Strip has been destroyed, indicating that the same applies to southern Lebanon.
Domestically, Israel heads on 27 October to legislative elections, the first since the 7 October 2023 attack, in a contest that appears closer to a referendum on Benjamin Netanyahu's rule, as he seeks a new mandate after multiple wars, while former Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot stands out as his most prominent rival, amid expectations of close results that could make coalition negotiations take weeks or months. In an indication of rising disagreement within the Israeli government, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir revealed what he wants from the defence ministry while asserting that Netanyahu seeks to push him away. Meanwhile, Mowafaq Tarif, the leader of the Druze community in Israel, announced in a statement his support for Netanyahu about a week and a half before the elections, following his efforts to stop the massacre of the Druze in southern Syria in July of last year. Netanyahu also said in an interview with American journalist Mark Levin that Israelis are not sitting on land they stole, describing them as the indigenous inhabitants and owners of the historical land and denying that their project is colonial.