Yoav Gallant\u2019s remarks come as White House Special envoy visited Israel to discuss the crisis on the Lebanon border
\n Tel Aviv
\nIsraeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday that the window was closing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon.
\nGallant\u2019s remarks came as the White House Special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel to discuss the crisis on the northern border where Israeli troops have been exchanging missile fire with Hezbollah forces for months.
\n\u201cThe possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out,\u201d Gallant told Austin in a phone call, according to a statement from his office.
\nAs long as Hezbollah continued to tie itself to Hamas in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been engaged for almost a year, \u201cthe trajectory is clear,\u201d he said.
\nThe visit by Hochstein, who is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, comes amid efforts to find a diplomatic path out of the crisis, which has forced tens of thousands on both sides of the border to leave their homes.
\nOn Monday, Israeli media reported that the head of the army\u2019s northern command had recommended a rapid border operation to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
\nA missile barrage by Hezbollah the day after Oct. 7 opened the latest phase of conflict and since then there have been daily exchanges of rockets, artillery fire and missiles, with Israeli jets striking deep into Lebanese territory.
\nHezbollah has said it does not seek a wider war at present but would fight if Israel launched one.
\nIsraeli officials have said for months that Israel cannot accept the clearance of its northern border areas indefinitely but while troops remain committed to Gaza, there have also been questions about the military\u2019s readiness for an invasion of southern Lebanon.
\nHowever, some of the hardline members of the Israeli government have been pressing for action and on Monday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a longtime foe of Gallant, called for him to be sacked.
\n\u201cWe need a decision in the north and Gallant is not the right person to lead it,\u201d he said in a statement on the social media platform X.
\nHundreds of Hezbollah fighters and dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed in the exchanges of fire, which have left communities on both sides of the border as virtual ghost towns.
\nThe two sides came close to all-out war last month after Israeli forces killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut in retaliation for a missile strike that killed 12 youngsters in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. On Monday, Israel\u2019s defence ministry said it had approved the distribution of 9,000 automatic rifles to civilian rapid response units in northern Israel and the Golan Heights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yoav Gallant\u2019s remarks come as White House Special envoy visited Israel to discuss the crisis on the Lebanon border Tel Aviv Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday that the window was closing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon. Gallant\u2019s remarks came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431626,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-431687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n