In full: IDF quizzed over claim Israel would turn Beirut's southern suburbs into another Gaza

How would you define the fight right now? >> Well, this Iranian regime is is a regime that has been building force for 50 years to annihilate the state of Israel and other nations and to wreak havoc in the region. But we have started this operation so strong and swiftly with the joint operation with the United States of America that the Iranian regime's hands are almost being tied right now. They're having a hard time carrying out attacks. They started off bombarding the entire region, firing towards 12 countries. The amount of missiles they're able they're able to fire has been diminishing every single day. >> What about your interceptor stock piles? How long can you afford to go on like this? Iran has been firing fiercely. >> Well, the the best the best way to defend is is offensively. And right now we were not using the interceptors because we're just taking out those missiles before they're even launched. We've had uh uh a decrease in the amount of missiles that has been extremely rapid and every time they try and fire we try and hunt those missiles before they even come out and every day that this operation keeps going on their situation worsens and ours better. So moving into this operation, of course, this is always something you track, but right now at the point of time we're standing, um their situation is worsened. The amounts of missiles they're able to launch is getting smaller, much faster than the amounts of interceptors we have. >> It seems implausible, doesn't it, from this vantage point that this is a conflict that you'll be able to finish in weeks? I think uh time will tell and we'll be we'll we'll have a better conversation about it in hindsight. Right now we're focusing on degrading the Iranian regime. We're doing great. The US armed forces, the largest army in the world is doing great and uh and in a lot of aspects we're ahead of schedule and and a lot of success in degrading the Iranians regime capabilities and time will tell. Do you see this as a war with Iran or a chance to reshape the region? >> Well, Iran has been the main destabilizer of the region for many, many years, for decades. And when Iran is out, it will definitely, if Iran, when Iran is out, it will make a huge difference in the region. But for us, especially as a military, we're looking at a threat and looking at how do we remove it. We are a nation that has a gun to our heads with someone who yells, "I want to kill you." and we're doing everything we can to remove that gun from the from the arena. >> More than 160 people died in a school, many of them children. Do you regret the high number of civilian casualties in Iran? >> Well, as you know, the IDF doesn't target civilians and when we hear such a claim, we take it very very seriously and we've looked into it and have found no idea of activity in that area, no relation to IDF activity in that area. I think this regime is very good at manipulating the world. And when we tell this story, we need to be aware of it. I'm not I don't know what happened there. I know it wasn't an IDF strike for as far as far as we could check, but I think it's very important the world is responsible and how we treat Iranian information. >> But you're not denying that children were killed. >> I I don't know what happened there. I know IDF activity and I know there was no IDF activity at that area >> in Lebanon. What is the endgame? BA right now has pushed attacks out of s southern Lebanon, has pushed forces down to southern Lebanon, and our job right now is to make sure we remove a threat. This is, as we're speaking right now, there's an immediate threat to our civilians. If we are not standing there on the border, sadly, our soldiers have received a lot of a lot of fire on the area of the borderline. But if our soldiers are not on the borderline, we know what they're going to do. They did it just two years ago. They took those vantage points, fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli families, and we had to evacuate an entire region of our country. So, right now, there's an immediate threat that we want to deal with. >> Has Bullet fired first in this conflict. But has it just provided you with the top cover you were long looking for to try and move into Lebanon? An excuse? >> Our main focus right now is on Iran. It was our only focus until Hisbala fired towards us. and we'll make sure they'll pay a price. But it was up to them and they chose to fight. They were the ones to shoot and we'll make sure they pay for it. The finance minister has said that they are going to turn the southern suburbs into communism southern suburbs into Gaza. >> We're fighting a terrorization similar to the way we fought a terrorization in Gaza. The goal is to fight this teranization and to do everything we can to avoid harm to civilians. We were successful in that in the past in different arenas and we hope to be successful both in targeting the terrorists and both in avoiding harm to civilians. That's what we're operating for. >> So there is a strong chance that you take the same approach in the southern suburbs as you did in Gaza. I'm I'm I'm a spokesperson for the military and and we are looking at a threat posed to our civilians and how we removed it. And as always, we target military targets. We do everything we can to avoid harm to civilians, including be transparent about it, even to the to the price of losing the element of surprise. >> Are you willing to pursue a ground incursion there? >> We're willing to do whatever is necessary to defend our people. And uh as I said, is the one that decided to join this uh this conflict against Israel. They they decided to fight alongside Iran, and we're ready to do whatever we need to defend ourselves from them. >> You say it's not a ground incursion in Lebanon, >> but you've got a lot of soldiers there in key positions. What is your intention there? >> Well, it's a very simple one. On the day after October 7th, in those positions that we are protecting right now on the Israeli border fired anti-tank missiles and RPGs towards our civilians. These are weapons. You have no sirens, no red alerts, no interception. 6 to 10 seconds and they kill an entire family. So, we took the positions and and we had to evacuate the entire northern Israel because of that. We took these positions. We are there for defensive measures to make sure doesn't do that again. And guess what? They're firing towards our soldiers in this position. So if we move out of there, it's very clear that within hours they're standing on those points uh firing at our civilians sitting there like ducks and that the geographics of the place means that is just overlooking all of the Israeli communities if we don't do that. >> Are you trying to create a buffer zone there? >> No, we're trying we're trying to prevent from carrying out attacks against our civilians as they have showed that they're interested in that and as they have been expanding their attacks towards us since they joined this war with Iran. I'm not spokesperson for politicians. I can tell you the military uh targets of this operation is to deal with a terrorist organization that wants to kill our citizens, to kill our civilians, and we'll do everything we can to uh remove their capabilities and to do it while we are providing all the possible more than any other nation in history, all the possible warnings to civilians. >> America says that it is preparing for the next phase that they have only just begun. What can we expect over the coming days? >> Well, as I said, this is an Iranian regime that has a lot of capabilities spread out on an enormous country. This is a country that has 10 times the population of Israel that is covering a a large part of the Middle East, and it's going to take time to take out all their military capabilities. But we've been able to establish aerial supremacy. We've been able to take out a lot of their offensive capabilities, and now we're hunting down the military targets in in Iran and Thran. and and as we said, we're ready to fight for as long as necessary to remove this threat as an existential threat for Israel. >> How long months? Could you go as far as September? That's one suggestion. >> I think it's good to leave some surprises for enemies and uh um we're ready to fight for as long as necessary. Obviously, always our goal is to have the maximum achievements in the minimum time and we've been doing it so far. We've had great achievements. Uh but our mission as a military is to be responsible and ready to fight for as long as necessary. >> Do you think you're in lock step with America? The president has talked about this potentially concluding in 4 weeks. Is that your belief? >> Well, I'll tell you one thing. What I've seen in in recent weeks, even before the operation began, is a level of intimacy and coordination that our military has never seen with any other military in the in the in our history. And I I've heard the same things from my American counterparts. Uh there is no daylight between us and the Americans. This is u an operation with shared values, with a shared goal to remove this this threat to the region and to operate against this evil regime. And the levels of coordination, the levels of conversation, daily conversations, our people in their command centers, their people in our command centers is something we've never seen in our history. And uh um I I will tell you there's no light of day between between Israel and the United States of America. >> There are concerns within the Gulf States that they already don't have enough interceptors to try and defend themselves. Are you concerned by that? I think Israeli American success has decreased the the rate of the Iranian attacks all over the region. It's not just towards Israel, all over the region. And I think what they need to be hopeful about is that uh our offensive operations keep succeeding so much because if they do, they don't need to be worried about interception if they're unable to fire. >> You're clearly in it for the long run. Do you think America is too? Well, I I don't know what you mean by the long run, but we've been able in 12 days and June to have great achievements and um we'll see how long this takes, but we've have we've had great achievements. We're in it in the long run if you mean that we will forever make sure that this enemy cannot annihilate our country. That is definitely and I think when it comes to that, the United States of America is also definitely in it for the long run. But we're acting right now to make sure that we don't have to fight later. We're fighting now to not have to fight later in much worse conditions.

The IDF has refused to deny suggestions from an Israeli minister that Beirut's southern suburbs could be turned into another Gaza. The far-right minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the Dahiyeh area would soon look “like Khan Younis”, a city in southern Gaza. The southern suburbs are controlled by the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, and has been subject to heavy bombing by the Israeli military. #skynews #lebanon #skynews #israel #beirut #Dahiyeh #iranwar SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for more videos: http://www.youtube.com/skynews Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/skynews Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skynews Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skynews Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skynews For more content go to http://news.sky.com and download our apps: Apple https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sky-news/id316391924?mt=8 Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bskyb.skynews.android&hl=en_GB Listen to our new podcast This is Why, available for free here: https://podfollow.com/thisiswhy To enquire about licensing Sky News content, you can find more information here: https://news.sky.com/info/library-sales