JERUSALEM/BEIRUT—Israel will escalate strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have continued to trade blows despite an April 16 truce aimed at halting the deadliest spillover of the U.S.-Israeli joint war on Iran. Tehran has demanded a halt to Israeli attacks in Lebanon as a condition in talks with the United States aimed at ending the broader war.
As the United States and Iran appeared to draw closer to a potential deal on Sunday, Netanyahu said he and President Donald Trump agreed in a phone call that Israel would retain the right to confront perceived threats on all fronts, including Lebanon.
Netanyahu doubled down on that message on Monday night, saying in a video released on Telegram: "We are at war with Hezbollah, and we will intensify our strikes."
He said Israel's military was not taking its "foot off the gas. On the contrary, I said to step on the gas even more."
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah or from Lebanese officials.
Israel's military has remained deployed in a broad swathe of southern Lebanon since the April 16 truce, with its air force striking what it describes as Hezbollah positions and its ground forces demolishing towns where it says the terrorist group holds sway.
Hezbollah has fired explosive drones at Israeli troops and toward towns in northern Israel, killing at least 11 soldiers since the truce, the military says. At least 608 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli attacks during the same period, according to the World Health Organization. Hezbollah has not released figures on its war dead.
Israel views the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs as a Hezbollah stronghold. Except for a strike targeting a Hezbollah commander in the area earlier this month, there have been no strikes on Beirut or its surroundings since the April 16 truce.
Netanyahu did not say in his video message whether Israel planned to resume broader attacks in Beirut. After his video was released, the military said it was attacking Hezbollah sites in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, rarely hit since the truce.
The truce helped enable negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, brokered by the United States in Washington, where a May 15 round saw the two sides agree to a 45-day ceasefire extension.
It was not immediately clear whether Netanyahu's pledge to intensify strikes in Lebanon would impact those discussions.
Netanyahu's pledge comes as top Iranian officials arrived in Doha for talks on a potential deal with the United States to end the three-month-old war in Iran, after Washington and Tehran played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough.
The Israeli leader has been under pressure to address Hezbollah's increased use of explosive drones to attack Israeli troops, one of whom was killed in such an attack on Sunday.
On Sunday evening, Hezbollah head Naim Qassem ramped up his rhetoric against the Lebanese state, saying that people had a right to take to the streets and overthrow the Lebanese government, although he stopped short of making a direct call for Hezbollah's supporters to do so.