As efforts continue in Washington and Beirut to find a negotiated end to combat between Israel and Hezbollah, new Defense Minister Israel Katz pledged Wednesday that the IDF will keep fighting until all of Israel’s goals are achieved.
“We will not make any ceasefire, we will not take our foot off the gas, and we will not allow any arrangement that does not include the achievement of the war’s goals,” said Katz during a visit to IDF Northern Command with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi. He listed the aims as disarming Hezbollah, pushing it beyond the Litani River, and allowing for the residents of northern Israel to return safely to their homes.
However, the disarming of Hezbollah has not been included in Israel’s war aims in Lebanon to this stage and it was unclear if the remark was a slip of the tongue.
In video of Katz’s remarks, Halevi appeared to do a double take at the mention of disarming Hezbollah, glancing over at the defense minister as he spoke.
Katz stressed that Israel will continue to insist on its “right to enforce [any deal] on its own and to act against any terrorist activity and organization.”
“Now we need to continue to hit Hezbollah with all our strength,” he said.
The comments came just days after Katz claimed Israel has defeated Hezbollah on the battlefield, despite the Iran-backed terror group continuing to launch deadly attacks on the north.
“The blows we inflicted defeated Hezbollah and the elimination of [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah is the crowning jewel,” he said at a ceremony for new Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who took Katz’s place.
Israel’s task now is to “change the security reality in the north,” said Katz.
As defense minister, Katz said, his number one task will be to prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon. He also said that he would ensure that Hamas has no future role in Gaza in any arrangement to end the war sparked by the Palestinian terror group’s October 7 massacres.
Katz took the helm at the Defense Ministry last week after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial firing of Yoav Gallant, with the premier citing a lack of mutual trust during a time of war.
The prime minister said that the two disagreed on the management of the war, and that Gallant had made statements and taken actions that contradicted cabinet decisions. He also accused Gallant of indirectly aiding Israel’s enemies.
The bombshell announcement was met with a mixture of outrage from members of the opposition and elation from coalition members, many of whom have been openly critical of Gallant’s position on a variety of matters pertaining to the war.
It also sparked several days of protests, recalling the first time Netanyahu fired Gallant, in March 2023, over his opposition to the government’s proposed judicial overhaul. Then, amid massive outcry, the prime minister backtracked, and reversed the firing. This time, the demonstrations were far smaller in scale.
In a speech following his firing, Gallant said he was dismissed due to disagreements with Netanyahu about conscription of the ultra-Orthodox, hostage negotiations with the Hamas terror group, and a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 attack.
The firing came as Israel braces for an expected attack by Iran after Israel’s October 26 airstrikes, which Jerusalem said took out the Islamic Republic’s air defenses and missile production capabilities.
Israel’s strikes were in retaliation to Iran’s October 1 barrage of 200 ballistic missiles, which forced most of the country to take shelter and killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank.