Israel Warns Assad He Will Personally Pay the Price for Potential Military Support to Hezbollah

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military warned Syrian President Bashar Assad that if he assists in rearming Hezbollah in Lebanon, he will personally pay a 'direct price' for 'playing with fire.' In his first interview with an Israeli media outlet after the ceasefire in the conflict with Hezbollah, Netanyahu stated that Assad is playing with fire while Israel will continue to act against Hezbollah's rearmament through Syria. Netanyahu had previously stated that Assad needs to understand he is playing with fire. Concurrently, an Israeli military spokesperson warned that if Syria takes steps to rearm Hezbollah, Israel will give Assad a 'direct warning' that he will bear the consequences. Admiral Daniel Hagari added that Israel has targeted all efforts to transfer weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon and will continue to take action in this regard. According to the Times of Israel, a senior Israeli military official emphasized that not only will shipments of weapons for Hezbollah in Syria be targeted, but also 'the Assad regime and he himself will pay the direct cost of providing military assistance to Hezbollah.' The Israeli military conducted heavy airstrikes on smuggling routes for Hezbollah in Syria just hours before the ceasefire began. They also bombed a large site for producing guided missiles for Hezbollah near the town of Janta in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, close to the Syrian border, to ensure that Hezbollah's 'precise missile production capability' cannot be rebuilt in the near future. IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi stated that they will act decisively against any deviation from the ceasefire. Israel has refused to allow displaced residents to return to their northern cities, conditioning it on the success of a two-month trial period. Netanyahu described the ceasefire as a trial period and instructed the military to be prepared to resume operations if the ceasefire fails. On Friday, the IDF spokesperson for Arabic-speaking audiences warned Lebanese citizens to avoid returning to certain villages near the northern Israeli border. Israel also announced it would hold three Hezbollah members as prisoners who entered a 'forbidden area' on the first day of the ceasefire. Despite Israel's warnings, reports indicate that tens of thousands of Lebanese, among approximately 1.5 million Shia residents of southern Lebanon who had left their homes in the past two months, are continuing to return. Meanwhile, Hezbollah is preparing for a large funeral for Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safi al-Din, its Secretary-General and his deputy, who were killed in Israeli bombings in Dahyeh less than two months ago. Hezbollah is a militant group and political party that controls a significant portion of southern Lebanon. The United States designates Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, while the European Union has blacklisted its military wing but does not consider its political wing as terrorist. The political wing of Hezbollah has representatives in the Lebanese parliament. Despite losing 'over 4,000 members' in the recent conflict, as reported by Reuters citing internal Hezbollah sources, the group emphasizes its revival but has been mandated to retreat behind the Litani River and remain several kilometers away from the Israeli border.