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00:00Let's cross now to Jerusalem and correspondent Iris Markler. Iris, any official statements?
00:07No official statements. You know, that often has been the Israeli policy,
00:11neither confirm nor deny. During this war, we have seen some attacks confirmed by Israel when
00:17it carried them out, but not this one, not this series of audacious and unprecedented attacks,
00:24you know, hundreds, if not thousands of small explosions and hundreds, perhaps now thousands
00:31of injuries. So no confirmation of that, but a backhanded confirmation, if you like, in terms
00:38of Israeli politics. There was meant to be a palace coup. Israel's prime minister indicated
00:45he was going to remove Israel's defence minister from office. That talk was going on all day. I
00:50expected it to happen tonight. And then suddenly all that was cancelled. And within two hours,
00:55we saw these attacks. So perhaps that's a backhanded confirmation of Israeli involvement.
01:00Yeah, let's go over the timeline of the last 48 hours, because if we go, if we
01:04dial backwards, there was a meeting on Monday between the U.S. envoy to the Middle East and
01:12Benjamin Netanyahu, where the Israeli prime minister made strong statements about having
01:20to secure the northern border. And that followed what he stated publicly. Let's take a listen
01:26during a Sunday cabinet meeting. The status quo will not continue. That requires a change in the
01:35balance of power on our northern border. We will do everything necessary to return our residents
01:40safely to their homes. I am committed to it. The government is committed to it. And we will
01:45not settle for less than that. The status quo must not continue.
01:52Well, that could mean one of two things. Either you tone it down or you dial it up.
01:59That's right. And it wasn't clear from that statement. I think Benjamin Netanyahu is
02:04responding to public pressure from within Israel. Something, you know, tens of thousands of
02:10Israelis are displaced from their homes in the north of the country because of this ongoing
02:15fighting with Hezbollah. And they have been complaining actually vociferously for a while.
02:20But I think during the last week, not only that the number of attacks from Lebanon into Israel,
02:25and it must be said from Israel into Lebanon as well, but that was not dialed down. But also
02:30people who had been moved south within Israel, so they've been moved from their homes in the
02:35northern border further south, that area soon became under attack as well. So you're going to
02:41have to move them a second time. And they were saying, where will we be moved to finally? Will
02:44we have to be moved back down to the Gaza border to be safe from the rockets of Hezbollah? So there
02:49was mounting public pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu. Pressure he has ignored until now. There was a
02:55cabinet meeting. They did say that they were incorporating the return of the citizens who
03:01were displaced in the north to their homes as part of the war aims. So perhaps that was a sign that
03:07the war in Gaza was being dialed down, if that was a possibility. Does not seem it's a possibility
03:12with this current right wing government. And that may have been one of the reasons that Benjamin
03:17Netanyahu was looking to broaden his coalition, bring in other players and dismiss his defense
03:23minister. Iris, we can expect a wide range of reactions from ordinary citizens in Israel,
03:32following that Hezbollah statement that our correspondent in Beirut, Rawad Taha,
03:37read out. What is the general mood after this operation? Well, the cabinet, security cabinet,
03:46is meeting. That includes the defense minister, who was about to be fired but is now doing the job.
03:53Or still doing the job, I should say. That includes the prime minister. It includes all
03:58the military leaders. There is a discussion there, I heard within the last half hour,
04:02that they anticipate an attack from Lebanon, a broadening of the war. There have been no
04:08instructions to the citizens who remain, the few citizens who remain in the north,
04:13to go to their bomb shelters. But there is definitely an alert on public transport,
04:18airports, ports. So yes, there's a huge increase in tension here tonight, following this action,
04:25which Israel has still not taken a responsibility for, although Hezbollah in Lebanon does attribute
04:32it to Israel. And I have a homework assignment for you, Iris, since you'll be joining us in the next
04:37hour in the France 24 debate. And that is, of course, to talk about the timing. And just a
04:41quick word on that. You mentioned at the outset how all this was happening when the attention
04:47where you are was on daggers drawn between the prime minister and his defence chief.
04:54Yes. Today, from all the reporting that we saw, was a day of Israeli politics. A change in the
05:03government. That was what was being mooted. That was what was being discussed. That's what the
05:07politicians were discussing. And then suddenly in the afternoon, all that went quiet. Netanyahu,
05:14it was said Israel's prime minister was not proceeding with the action against his defence
05:18minister. And you've got this quite absurd situation where, you know, less than 24 hours ago,
05:26the defence minister, Yoav Galant, was a man who could be moved aside. Now suddenly he's a man who
05:30can't be moved aside. So was he bad at his job or is he good at his job? It definitely becomes
05:36a question of where politics and military judgment meet and which takes precedence.
05:42We'll be asking you more about that in the next hour,
05:46in a special edition of the France 24 Debate. Thank you. Yours, Marc Lard.