Smotrich threatens to reoccupy southern Lebanon if Hezbollah's missiles do not stop

On Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to reoccupy southern Lebanon if Hezbollah did not stop firing rockets toward Israel.

This came during a speech during a meeting of his party held in the Galilee region in northern Israel, which is exposed to Hezbollah missiles, according to the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

Smotrich said: "We must issue a public ultimatum to Hezbollah to completely stop firing and withdraw beyond the Litani River."

He added: "If Hezbollah does not fully respond to our demands, the Israeli army must launch an attack to defend the northern towns deep into Lebanese territory, including ground entry and military control of the southern Lebanon area."

As of 10:10 (UTG), Hezbollah had not commented on Smotrich's threat, but the party stressed on more than one occasion that it would not stop its attacks on Israel until the "aggression" on the Gaza Strip stopped.