Was Israel on the verge of launching a preventive strike against Hezbollah following Hamas's attack on October 7? Israeli minister and former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot unveiled a surprise regarding the answer to this question. Speaking to Israeli Channel 12 on Thursday evening, Eisenkot stated that he prevented Israel from attacking Hezbollah preemptively in the days after the Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Eisenkot, whose youngest son was killed in the Gaza war last month, said, "Israel was about to strike Hezbollah even though the latter had not yet fired at Israel... I persuaded the war cabinet officials to postpone that move." He added, "I believe our presence there prevented Israel from committing a grave strategic mistake."
The Israeli-Lebanese border witnesses daily exchanges of fire, but it has not escalated to a full-scale war. Both Hezbollah and Israel have expressed a desire to avoid war, yet both claim they are prepared to fight if necessary.
Opposition members Eisenkot and Benny Gantz, who is also a former chief of staff, joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government shortly after the Hamas attack, after which Israel launched a comprehensive war on the Gaza Strip. Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas after its members killed approximately 1,200 people in Israel and took 240 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli statistics, while the Israeli war resulted in the deaths of about 24,000 Palestinians in the territory and the displacement of nearly 1.9 million people, or 85% of the population of the Gaza Strip.
A hostage deal reached in November saw the release of about half of the captives, but Eisenkot noted that more than 100 hostages remain in captivity, and a new deal will be necessary to recover them. He stated, "It is impossible to recover the hostages alive soon without an agreement." He explained that the war's objectives of stripping Hamas of power in Gaza and killing those responsible for the October attack "will still be valid" after a temporary ceasefire.
