Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Let's bring in Claire Pakalan for us now. She's our reporter in Jerusalem today.
00:04And Claire, look, let's take a look at one of our main angles today on this story.
00:09That is the Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Galant, visiting the north of Israel near the
00:15Lebanese border and again suggesting a ground incursion into Lebanon could be imminent.
00:24Certainly, Yoav Galant, the Israeli Defence Minister,
00:27telling troops up near the border with Lebanon in the north of Israel,
00:31telling troops that while it was important to have eliminated Hassan Nasrallah,
00:37the leader of Hezbollah, it was not the final step. Israel has always said that its aim is to allow
00:44its citizens to live in security in the north of the country. Over 60,000 have been evacuated
00:49from their homes and have been living outside of the area for nearly a year now. And those who are
00:55still living in the north are living with the sounds of sirens going off regularly and the
01:02desire to have a more secure situation, a more comfortable situation. I was in the north of the
01:06country yesterday and last week. People there telling me that they are anxious and that they
01:11are wondering whether they can stay or not. Of course, going in on the ground is a completely
01:17different matter from bombing in the skies. And I've been speaking to Israelis who have told me
01:22that on the one hand, they feel like it might be the right time to strike now and to go in on the
01:27ground because Hezbollah is clearly severely degraded. On the other, they are concerned for
01:33the lives and the safety of Israeli troops and that going into enemy territory would clearly mean
01:40a difficult situation for some Israeli troops, given that Hezbollah still has the ability to
01:46send rockets into Israel. They have not been wiped out by any means in the south of Lebanon.
01:52And some Israelis say they fear for the lives of their troops. And it's a divided situation here
01:58in the country, this potential, this question mark over whether or not a ground incursion will
02:03take place. But certainly the leaders here in Israel are hinting towards a possible ground
02:09invasion and one that could be imminent. And Claire, you mentioned you were in the north of Israel
02:14yesterday. Tell us exactly where you were and what it was that you witnessed there.
02:19I was in Safed, which is about 12 kilometers from the border with Lebanon. It's a town which has
02:26been living to the sounds of air raid sirens going off regularly. There are some public
02:30shelters where people go, but many people don't have shelters in their homes and they only have
02:3630 seconds to get to the safest place possible because they're so near the border. And when the
02:41rockets fired from Hezbollah come across the border, well, they reach Safed and the surrounding
02:47areas where there are several army bases. Pretty quickly, I was speaking to a resident there called
02:53Lila, who was standing outside a house that was totally destroyed in a rocket attack by Hezbollah
02:59on Friday evening, just hours after Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah. And she told me that her home
03:05was nearby and that she was, of course, clearly very worried about the situation. I think we can
03:11listen to Lila now. Because of the fear of air raid alerts and everything we're going through here,
03:20we haven't had visitors coming to Safed for nearly a year.
03:24It's a death sentence for businesses. Some have already closed.
03:32So that house that was hit by the rocket, no one was home at the time, so no one was injured.
03:37And Israel's air defence system, the Iron Dome, does manage to intercept most rockets coming
03:42through, but that one slipped through. And of course, if someone had been at home that night
03:47on Friday night, well, it would have been hard to imagine anyone getting out of that alive. So people
03:52in the north of Israel are telling me that they're living with anxiety and they would like to get
03:56some security back in their lives. But the possibility of a ground invasion from Israel
04:02into Lebanon is certainly something that means escalation. And it's certainly something that
04:08people in Israel are thinking very hard about at the moment. Claire Pakkalau reporting for us now
04:12from Jerusalem yesterday in Safed in the north of Israel. Thank you.