The Minister of Energy in the Israeli government, Karin Elharrar, officially announced that the gas extraction from the "Karish" platform would commence in September. She warned Hezbollah that "any attempt to attack it will be met with an Israeli response using various tools at our disposal." According to Hebrew media, the gas extraction platform, located 80 kilometers west of the Israeli coast in Israeli economic waters, is set to begin operations next month.
Channel 13 reported that following a drone attack by Hezbollah on Saturday targeting the Karish gas platform near the Lebanese border, a highly secretive discussion occurred today amidst fears of additional attack attempts. The report highlighted that Israel is framing the situation not only as a security threat to itself but also as a global threat.
The discussion, deemed extremely confidential, was chaired by Minister Elharrar and involved all relevant security and media entities: the Mossad, National Security Council, and the military. Security officials stated during the discussion that they are prepared to face any further attacks; however, the report emphasized criticism directed at the behavior of the Israeli military spokesperson on the same day of the Hezbollah attack. It was pointed out in the discussion that Israeli messages were not unified and lacked coherence.
It is noted that Israel has agreements with Egypt and the European Union, which are based on the premise that gas exploration at the Karish platform will begin in September. In this context, a phone call was held today between Israeli and European officials, with the conveyed message being: "Don't sit idly by; the damage does not only affect the Israeli energy sector if Hezbollah attacks the Karish platform, but also threatens supplies to Europe." A similar message will be communicated to Egypt.
In response, the spokesperson for the Israeli military stated that "the military spokesperson, as an official state representative, coordinates necessary statements with the political level through the spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense and the National Media Office, as occurred here. The military spokesperson does not disclose sensitive security information to spokespersons from ministries or economic companies. We further add that the discussion this morning at the Ministry of Energy was classified as extremely secret, and we regret such leaks."
