Israel’s security cabinet has added a new war goal: to return the residents of the north to their homes, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) announced early Tuesday morning.

Israel’s security cabinet met in the Kiryah in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night following the meetings of US special envoy Amos Hochstein with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant earlier in the day. Hochstein flew to Israel as part of the Biden administration’s last-ditch attempt to forge a diplomatic solution to the Hezbollah terror group’s ongoing attacks on Israel. However, both Gallant and Netanyahu made it clear to Hochstein that “the window for a diplomatic solution” has passed and Israel must do what it takes to restore security to its northern border.

There are currently 68,500 displaced Israelis who were evacuated from their homes close to the northern border in the wake of the October 7 assault and subsequent Hezbollah attacks on Israel. And of course, there are hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in the north in communities that were not evacuated but are under constant Hezbollah fire.

Returning those residents to their homes, which will not be possible without an all-out war with Hezbollah, has now been added  to the preexisting war goals of the destruction of Hamas and the return of the hostages, an apparent signal that Israel has decided to launch a war with Hezbollah

Ynet reported that senior IDF officials support extending the war to the north, saying that there’s no possibility of returning northern residents to their homes with a diplomatic agreement alone. Even those who initially supported a diplomatic agreement have changed their minds in the wake of Hezbollah’s increasingly aggressive attacks that have lasted for almost a year.

The IDF has learned more about the operations of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force along the border. Although most Radwan terrorists have been killed or fled northward, they left behind much infrastructure and military sources say that IDF forces must carry out a ground operation to dismantle it.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)