Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met today (Monday) with members of the "Conflict Zone Forum" where he met with local council leaders in the north and their struggles to cope with the war.
At the end of the meeting, Gallant said that "a month ago I made it unequivocally clear that we need to establish a new war aim and this is to return the residents of the north to their homes."
He then explained what this meant in practice: "The activity taking place now is effectively part of the application of this matter, this is how the transfer of a center of gravity looks like - the elimination of Nasrallah, the elimination of missiles, rockets, hitting senior leaders."
He then hinted at the next phase of the operation, likely a ground invasion according to US sources: "The nest stage in the war against Hezbollah will begin soon - it will be a significant factor in changing the security situation and will allow us to complete the important part of returning the residents to their homes."
He then laid down the operation's ultimate reason and purpose: "[I said a year ago] If Hezbollah crosses the red line, we will know what to do. So it crossed the red line and we are acting. And now we will exploit our success and bring about a different situation so that they can live here like they should for decades."
