After Hezbollah launched a barrage of airstrikes toward northern Israel on Sunday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog insisted that while Israel is not seeking to escalate the mounting conflict into a full-scale war, it won’t hesitate to engage if provoked.
"We don't want war, but if it's waged against us, we go all the way," Herzog told CBS's Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan this morning.
Hezbollah, the Iran-backed paramilitary group based in Lebanon, launched over 100 rockets into northern Israel on Sunday, forcing thousands of Israelis into shelters overnight. According to the Associated Press, Israel's military reported that the rockets specifically targeted civilian areas — seen as a clear escalation from previous strikes, which had primarily focused on military sites.
The latest attack followed an Israeli air raid on Friday in Beirut that left at least 45 dead, including high-ranking Hezbollah commanders Ibrahim Akil and Ahmed Wahbi. Last week, two coordinated attacks detonated pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, killing over two dozen people, including two young children, and wounding thousands of others.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq reportedly played a role in Sunday's attack, which Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem warned is "just the beginning" of further retaliation.
"We are prepared to confront all military possibilities," Qassem reportedly said while attending Akil's funeral near Beirut on Sunday. He later declared that Hezbollah has entered a "new phase" in its conflict with Israel and that an "open-ended battle of reckoning" is now underway.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized in a video address that Israel will take "whatever action is necessary to restore security and to bring our people safely back to their homes."
As Herzog explained to Brennan, Hezbollah has been attacking northern Israel on a “daily basis,” since Oct. 8, 2023, leading to the displacement of roughly 100,000 Israelis from their homes in the north.
Herzog: Hezbollah was 'planning another Oct. 7'
Friday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, which killed Akil and Wahbi, was reportedly based on intelligence indicating they were plotting attacks similar to the Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel that left around 1,200 Israelis dead. In the ongoing Israeli military response to that attack, more than 40,000 Palestinians have reportedly died in Gaza.
“These guys who we eradicated on Friday were gathering together in their apartment in Beirut in order to plan another Oct. 7,” Herzog said Sunday, though he declined to provide further details about the alleged scheme.
Hamas 'refuses to get a [ceasefire] deal'
Herzog said that Israelis “support and welcome” U.S. efforts to broker a ceasefire — particularly through the work of Biden advisor Amos Hochstein, who has served as the key liaison between Israel and Lebanon. However, the Israeli president accused both Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar of refusing to engage in negotiations.
“When you’re dealing with terror organizations, they don’t really give a damn about international affairs,” Herzog said. “They take hostages or they fire as much as they want, they get instructions from Tehran, they send routine terrorists to block the high seas and the cost of living in the world goes up. This is the culture of terror.”
The U.S. attempts to deescalate
The Israeli military's heightened focus on Hezbollah has raised concerns that Israel may be diverting its attention from Gaza toward a broader regional conflict, even as the U.S. attempts to deescalate tensions on both fronts.
White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said the U.S. is making every effort to prevent the conflict from escalating into "an all-out war" with Hezbollah across the Lebanese border.
"We have been involved in extensive and quite assertive diplomacy," Kirby told ABC's This Week host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, emphasizing that further military action is not in "either side's best interest."
Kirby noted that a wider conflict would contradict Netanyahu’s goal of getting families back to their homes, particularly with the ongoing efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages.
However, negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza "are not achieving any progress here in the last week to two weeks," Kirby said, though he underscored that it's "not for lack of trying."
Like Herzog, Kirby blamed the impasse on Hamas leadership, while reiterating that the U.S. is committed to finding “a diplomatic solution” for both sides.
Herzog responds to Israel's alleged malpractice
During his appearance on Face the Nation, Herzog was also asked about the Israel Defense Forces' investigation into an incident in which soldiers were filmed seemingly throwing lifeless bodies off a rooftop during a military operation in the West Bank town of Qabatiya on Sept. 19. That same day, the IDF reportedly killed four militants during a firefight in the area.
In footage of the event, three soldiers are seen lifting what appears to be a rigid body and dragging it toward the edge of the roof. Troops on the ground are visible below as the soldiers on the roof look over the side before tossing the body off, according to the Associated Press.
“We’re a nation under the rule of law,” Herzog said. “We will of course take all necessary action. We will condemn it and use all the legal steps that need to be taken against it, but we’re studying it because we’re a serious army with serious people and we study and investigate ourselves as much as we can.”