Lt. Col. D., commander of the IDF's 77th Battalion, spoke about the relative calm along Israel's northern border and offered a rare glimpse into some of the deepest areas south of the Litani River where Israeli forces continue to operate.
"We're now closer to the Saluki Valley. We captured the villages that gave us control over the eastern bank so we could clear the wadi itself, and from there we crossed to the western bank to seize the villages there," he said.
Reflecting on what he described as the operation's greatest achievement, Lt. Col. D. pointed to the attrition inflicted on Hezbollah.
"Children are playing on the grass in Misgav, civilians are shopping at the grocery store, while just a few hundred meters away Radwan terrorists were standing with ammunition and weapons, ready to fight, separated only by a fence," he said.
"When you stop and think about it afterward, you realize what you've accomplished. We see exhausted terrorists who are struggling to deal with us. They're simply not succeeding."
Asked about the emerging agreement with Lebanon, the battalion commander warned of the risks involved in withdrawing from strategically important positions captured by the IDF.
"Every time you move one line back, they'll move one line forward," he said. "If we're ordered to withdraw, that won't be an excuse. We'll know how to defend the communities from wherever we're told to do so. But from both a tactical and operational standpoint, the deeper you are in the territory, the better your ability to protect civilians."
He argued that the current deployment has fundamentally changed the security situation.
"In the end, the threat of an infiltration has been almost completely neutralized, the anti-tank missile threat no longer exists, and that's all because of the depth at which we're positioned. The IDF and the State of Israel are no longer what they were before October 7. If it becomes clear that the Lebanese Army is not dismantling Hezbollah, we'll return to operating in those areas very quickly. I have no doubt about that," he concluded.