
Ceasefire in Name Only: Israel, Hezbollah Keep Trading Fire
President Donald Trump may have announced an extension of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah Friday — but actions speak louder than words. Both sides have been striking each other as if nothing was said, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid full responsibility for that failure at the feet of Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah’s violations are actually disintegrating the ceasefire,” Netanyahu said at a government meeting Sunday. “We are operating vigorously according to rules that we agreed upon with the United States, and also, incidentally, with Lebanon.”
“That means freedom of action not only to respond to attacks — that’s clear — but to thwart immediate threats, and also to endanger emerging threats,” he added.
David Azoulay, mayor of the northernmost town Metula, bitterly criticized the IDF’s failure to protect Israeli communities in the north of the country, as well as the government’s acquiescence to Trump’s demands, in an interview with Ynet.
“Apparently he [Trump] makes decisions for Israel, and I don’t remember voting for him in the last election,” Azoulay said. He added that he supports negotiations only “alongside crushing Hezbollah.”
Complaining about what he described as the ineffectual strikes against the terror group, he said, “It’s all weak. What force? There was nothing. There were strikes in southern Lebanon, but not where they were needed. There is nothing new. It is meant to tell us, ‘Look, we’re striking.’ It is all one big bluff. We have been abandoned to our fate. We have had enough.”
Both sides have been trading blows since the ceasefire began about two weeks ago, and — ceasefire or no — with the current escalation of IDF evacuation orders in towns in Southern Lebanon, there are no signs of it letting up.