President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday visited the northern Israeli cities of Kiryat Bialik and Haifa. The President first visited the emergency operation center in Kiryat Bialik and met with local leaders of cities across the Western Galilee region, and representatives of the Home Front Command in the area. The meeting was attended by the mayor of Kiryat Bialik, Eli Dukorsky, and the mayor of Kiryat Motzkin, Tziki Avishar.
The President continued his visit at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa and, together with the center's director, Professor Michael Halberthal, met soldiers who were injured during the fighting in Lebanon.
The visit concluded at the crisis management center in the city of Haifa, where he met with the city's mayor, Yona Yahav, and officers from the Home Front Command, and police and emergency forces operating in the city.
In his remarks, the President praised the local leaders and citizens for their strength and resilience, and sent a strong message to the people of Lebanon who he noted were paying the price for Hezbollah's ongoing war of terror against Israel.
He commented, "Hezbollah has been threatening Haifa and this vicinity all throughout and yet, the people of Haifa are strong, resilient. The mayor and his team are outstanding, and I'm sure we shall overcome and we shall undermine their capabilities.
"The world should understand that we've offered, time and again to reach an amicable solution on the border with Lebanon. Unfortunately, Hezbollah refused time and again, and today, Sheikh Naim Qassem threatened again and again to link the situation in Lebanon to other frontiers. So let me tell the people of Lebanon: you are paying the price for a vicious regime of terror headed by Hezbollah, you are paying the price. Instead of a good, decent life for a country that was once the pride of the Middle East, Lebanon, now you're paying the price, and the price is getting heavier and heavier. And I think pressure on Hezbollah is imminent, on Iran is imminent. The world community should confront them strongly and demand an immediate solution and an exit from this war by way of securing a silent and a peaceful border between us and Lebanon."
