Israel's military has been juggling operations against two Iranian-backed terror groups: Hamas to the south in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in the north in Lebanon.
The main war at this time is in the south, with Israel's stated goal of destroying Hamas and rescuing the remaining hostages held in Gaza. But Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., told Newsmax on Tuesday he believes Israel Defense Forces will eventually open a northern front to battle Hezbollah, which has been lobbing rockets almost daily into Israeli territory.
"You have a situation where you are facing an enemy [in Hezbollah] when you juxtapose it to Gaza that has a better situation of let's call it a military supply chain at their disposal," Mast told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "They have a more sustainable military supply chain. They could bring to bear more rockets than what Gaza can right now, especially after everything that's gone on post Oct. 7.
Israel's Air Force has been retaliating against Hezbollah, with several strikes in southern Lebanon that have killed senior Hezbollah commanders, including one late Tuesday that killed the terror group's commander for the central region of the southern border, according to Reuters. But Mast said he believes a wider military operation is possible.
"You do have a situation that I do believe at some point there will be a northern front," said Mast, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Afghanistan. "It's going to be a matter of when Israel considers that it's both strategically and tactically wise for them to do so."
Mast said Israel's daring rescue of four hostages held by Hamas at homes of Palestinian civilians in Gaza on Saturday was a "step in the right direction," even though it resulted in a reported 274 Palestinian casualties.
"You have a population that I always tell people, be careful about saying 'innocent Palestinian civilians,'" Mast said. "I'm not saying that little kids aren't innocent. Of course they are. But people like to think that because it's a woman or because they're not quite 18 years old, or because it's an older person, that they're not involved in the transport of rockets or building the tunnels or in the education system … or the list goes on and on.
"Just because they don't wear a black hood and a green bandana like Hamas does, that they're not actually Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad or Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade or some other terrorist [group] or in support of the terrorists. [Hamas was] elected as the popular government at one point, and they are very systemically supported by the population there."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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