Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday afternoon that the IDF has full freedom of action in southern Lebanon to thwart direct or emerging threats to Israeli forces and to northern residents. In a statement, he said the instructions from him and the defense minister were unchanged, and declared, “There are no restrictions on the IDF in this matter.” He added, “I stand behind them, the entire nation stands behind them.”
His remarks came amid growing controversy over Israel’s rules of engagement in Lebanon. Military sources said that in practice, Israel is facing significant limits beyond the “yellow line” in Lebanon, and that many strikes that used to be approved at lower command levels now require approval from the highest echelons.
According to those sources, the restrictions mainly affect proactive operations against Hezbollah targets deep inside Lebanon, including command centers, weapons depots, production sites and other terror infrastructure that do not qualify as immediate threats. Military correspondent Doron Kadosh said the term “emerging threat” is supposed to include arms sites and terror facilities in Lebanon’s interior and in Beirut, but that the IDF has not attacked such targets recently.
Kadosh added that in the past 48 hours, “not a single bomb was dropped” in Lebanon by fighter jet or drone. Netanyahu’s statement was presented as a rejection of claims that the army is constrained, while military sources maintained that operational limits remain in place.
