The head of the "Ma'ale Yosef" regional council, Shimon Guetta, voiced the fears of the settlers in the region in front of members of the Knesset. 

Guetta said that the IOF is obliged to operate in the North [of occupied Palestine] and not just the South, hinting at the IOF's failure to do anything in the face of attacks by the Lebanese Resistance.

During a Knesset session he had attended,  Guetta described the general mood of anxiety among settlers in the north. 

The settlers "remain in their houses, with all the defenses and projectiles, without the daily routine of life, without education, and without work," he said.

The Israeli War cabinet had reportedly deliberated on evacuating settlements up to five kilometers away from the borders, he said, however, the authority to execute this decree was relegated to the  IOF, who sufficed with evacuating settlements in the 3.5-kilometer area from the border.

'Not even in rhetoric do they threaten Hezbollah'

No one from the security and military establishment has informed local authorities in the region about any prospective decisive operation against Hezbollah, he said. 

Guetta further added: Not even in rhetoric do they dare to threaten to eliminate Hezbollah's Al-Radwan special forces as they have deliberated to do with Hamas. He emphasized that even the evacuated settlers "feel scared and do not want to return to their houses, especially after what happened in the Gaza envelope on October 7th."

He added that the possibility of far-reaching tunnels has gripped the settlers with anxiety. 

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1,000 Hezbollah operations against IOF

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, the international spokesperson for the Israeli occupation military, highlighted that the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon - Hezbollah, has carried out more than 1,000 attacks against "Israel" since October 7, Jonathan Spyer wrote in a report published in The Wall Street Journal.

Spyer mentioned that Hezbollah seeks to maintain a controlled second front to aid its allies in the south, in reference to the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza.

"We see a steady escalation in terms of the range and variety of munitions being launched by Hezbollah at Israel," Conricus told foreign journalists at a briefing in "Kibbutz Rosh Hanikra" in northern occupied Palestine on December 18.

"We can do the same, if we need to, against Hezbollah that we are doing against Hamas in the south. This may be the scenario that we will need to implement," the Israeli spokesperson warned.

Spyer wrote, "Ben, a reservist squad commander in the airborne infantry, laughed when I asked him about the possibility of a northern war."

"It’s a myth that Israel might open a front in the north," the Israeli commander was quoted as saying, "because there’s already a front open."

Read more: IOF targeted Gaza churches using coordinates from Congress: Politico