The mayor of Metula, a town on Israel’s northern border, criticised the government on Saturday after rockets fired from Lebanon struck the area and demanded a return to war.
“We will not go back to the reality of October 6… and this is what the IDF, the Northern Command, and the Israeli government are trying to normalise,” David Azoulay, the mayor of Metula, told AFP, alluding to the day before South Israel was attacked by Hamas in 2023.
Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese faction, fought a full-scale war for two months before a truce was reached on November 27, 2024.
On October 8, 2023, Hezbollah established a front against Israel in aid of Hamas, whose assault on Israel precipitated the war in Gaza.
Over a year of cross-border gunfire between Israel’s military and Hezbollah forced the evacuation of the 2,400-person town of Metula.
Credit: Al Arabiya
Only eight per cent of Metula’s population has returned since the November truce, according to Azoulay, and some inhabitants departed again on Saturday following the rocket firing.
“This is a failure, and it’s exactly the policy of containment of (what led to) October 7,” he stated.
“Act offensively and make it so that not one bullet is fired ever again at northern communities,” the mayor urged the Israeli government to do.
“As far as I’m concerned, we should return to war, even if one bullet is fired towards Israel,” he stated.
The Israeli military claimed to have hit “dozens of Hezbollah rocket launchers” in southern Lebanon on Saturday.
According to an official, three of the six missiles that were fired were intercepted after crossing into Israel.
The fire has not yet been attributed to any group, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered strikes against “dozens of terrorist targets” in Lebanon.
The projectiles fired on Saturday were the first to be shot towards Israel from Lebanon since the truce went into place at the end of November, according to an Israeli military spokesperson.
