{"id":496075,"date":"2026-06-16T19:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/496075\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T19:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:33:08","slug":"heritage-minister-israel-must-hold-litani-at-all-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/496075\/","title":{"rendered":"Heritage minister: Israel must hold Litani at all costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel must ensure northern security \u201cat any cost\u201d and hold territory up to the Litani River, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu<\/a> (Otzma Yehudit) told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, amid criticism over the emerging US-Iran agreement and its potential impact on Israel\u2019s military operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not need to declare what comes next, but rather to carry out the next required action,\u201d Eliyahu said, adding that the next action \u201cwill come through surprises, not declarations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that, for now, we must hold the territory up to the Litani River<\/a> and ensure, at any cost, the security of Israel\u2019s northern border communities,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Eliyahu\u2019s remarks came as numerous government ministers have continued to criticize the emerging US-Iran agreement, and amid reports that Hezbollah has received assurances from Iran that it will demand a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon in the next phase of talks with the US.<\/p>\n

Regarding reported Iranian statements on Lebanon, Eliyahu warned that, \u201cIf Iran wants to try to be Hezbollah\u2019s protector, I would suggest they remember what happened to Hezbollah when it tried to be Hamas\u2019s protector.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eliyahu also told the Post that it was his \u201csincere hope\u201d that President Donald Trump<\/a> had not said \u201chis last word\u201d regarding the deal.<\/p>\n

He added that he hoped Trump remembered \u201cthe lessons of history, from which we learned that when civilization is required to choose between the disgrace of an agreement with evil and a war against evil, and in the end the agreement prevails, the final outcome is both disgrace and war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Government ministers have called for Israel to maintain freedom of action over military operations amid the emerging Iran-US deal. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir<\/a>, leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said on Monday that Trump\u2019s agreement \u201cdoes not bind us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added at a party press conference in the Knesset that \u201cThe State of Israel must not accept a ceasefire between the United States and Iran.\u201d Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called the agreement \u201cbad for Israel and the entire free world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel must ensure northern security \u201cat any cost\u201d and hold territory up to the Litani River, Heritage Minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,42,86,1031,87,142930,837,20426,43,21370,40,38,41,39,1032],"class_list":["post-496075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-hamas","tag-headlines","tag-hezbollah","tag-idf","tag-iran","tag-iran-deal","tag-itamar-ben-gvir","tag-litani-river","tag-news","tag-rabbi-amichai-eliyahu","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496075","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=496075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}