Israel announces the entry of a new phase of the war and concentrates its forces on the border with Lebanon

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they would return northern residents to their towns "safely," while his Defense Minister Yoav Galant said the war had entered a new phase on Wednesday with more troops and resources being moved toward the northern front with Lebanon.

Netanyahu made it clear that Israel would ensure the return of tens of thousands of residents of the northern border areas, saying in a video statement, "I have said this before, we will return the citizens of the north to their homes safely and that is exactly what we will do."

In turn, Galant said that the war entered a new phase today, Wednesday, with its center moving to the northern border region, which is witnessing the transfer of more forces and resources, noting that the army is achieving accomplishments in cooperation with other security agencies, according to him.

"We are opening a new phase in the war... which requires courage, determination and perseverance from us," Galant said in remarks at an air base. "Our mission is clear and simple: to return our citizens to their homes in the north."

For his part, the Israeli Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, threatened Hezbollah that it "will pay a greater price in every stage of the war than it paid in the previous stage," stressing that "we have not used all of our capabilities and we have many that we have not used yet and we are working on preparing plans to move forward," according to his expression.

The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said on Wednesday that the army decided to transfer the Israeli "Commando 98" division from Gaza to the northern front, in preparation for the possibility of expanding the war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

The Wall Street Journal also quoted an informed source today as saying that the explosions in Lebanon coincided with Israel transferring a division from the Gaza Strip to the northern front, in light of the escalation with the Lebanese Hezbollah and the explosion of pagers and wireless devices in Lebanon since yesterday, Tuesday, which caused deaths and injuries.

This comes after Israel expanded its declared goals for the war on Gaza to include enabling Israelis to return to their homes in the north, in light of its ongoing war on the Strip since October 7.

At a time when Lebanon witnessed, on Wednesday, the sound of simultaneous explosions in more than one area in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Bekaa, and southern Lebanon, security sources reported that "the wireless devices that exploded were portable and not of the type of pager charge that exploded yesterday, Tuesday."

Hezbollah-affiliated media outlets confirmed the explosion of wireless devices in the hands of their carriers in a number of Lebanese regions. As a result, 14 people were killed and about 450 were injured, the day after similar explosions of pager wireless communication devices targeted thousands of Hezbollah members, leading to the death of 12 people.

Source: Al Jazeera + Reuters