Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said on Israel’s Memorial Day on Tuesday that Israel remains engaged in a struggle for its existence and future, emphasizing that national independence comes at a cost as tensions with Hezbollah in Lebanon continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cA direct and clear line connects all of Israel\u2019s armed forces: the State of Israel is still fighting for its existence and future,\u201d Katz said, adding that \u201cour independence is not something that is given to us without a price,\u201d according to remarks released by his office.<\/p>\n
Israel commemorates fallen soldiers on Memorial Day<\/p>\n
Referring to Hezbollah leadership, Katz said, \u201cNasrallah destroyed the Shiite community in Lebanon, and Naim Qassem will destroy it and pay with the loss of homes and territory,\u201d while linking the group\u2019s leadership to Hamas and other Iran-backed factions in the region. The comments were made in the context of ongoing Israeli military operations and ceasefire arrangements in Lebanon and Gaza.<\/p>\n
Katz said the \u201cultimate goal of the campaign in Lebanon is to disarm Hezbollah and remove the threat from the northern settlements,\u201d adding that Israel is pursuing this objective \u201cwith a combination of military and political steps.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also warned that if the Lebanese government does not act, \u201cthe IDF will do this in the continuation of military activity,\u201d indicating that Israel could continue operations if it deems its security conditions unmet.<\/p>\n
The remarks come amid continued tensions along Israel\u2019s northern border, where Israel says it is seeking to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding military capabilities following months of cross-border conflict. Lebanese officials have called for de-escalation while international mediators work to maintain fragile ceasefire arrangements.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said on Israel’s Memorial Day on Tuesday that Israel remains engaged in a struggle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-403056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}