This morning, the IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, began his official work visit to the Italian Armed Forces as a guest of the Chief of Defense Staff of Italy, General Vincenzo Camporini.
The two met earlier today, and discussed various matters faced by the two militaries. They exchanged views regarding the war on terror in Afghanistan and the Italian forces deployed in southern Lebanon as part of UNIFIL. Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi listened to briefings by his colleague, with whom he held a joint situation assessment report regarding the expanding threats in the Middle East.
General Camporini praised the cooperation between the two militaries, stating that “Israel is a great friend of Italy. We know the Israeli people and the IDF well, and we will do all we can in order to strengthen the cooperation [between us].”
Later in the afternoon, Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi met with leaders of the Italian Jewish community, and briefed them on the challenges facing the IDF. The Chief of the General Staff thanked the community leaders for their brave friendship which allows the State of Israel and the IDF to face the challenges that still exist 62 years after Israel’s establishment.
Later in the evening, Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi met senior editors of the Italian media. During the meeting, he said: “Hezbollah duplicates sections of southern Lebanon underground, and is building an underground infrastructure of command centers and rocket launchers, mostly within the Shiite villages in southern Lebanon, as well as other parts of Lebanon.”
He continued and warned that “throughout Lebanon, including in southern Lebanon, residential villages were turned into ’surface-to-surface rocket villages,’ while Hezbollah is taking advantage of the local population and [also taking advantage of] the lack of UNIFIL’s mandated authority, to strengthen its command centers and rocket launchers inside the villages”
The IDF Chief of the General Staff mentioned that he recently decided to reveal part of this deployment, by using one village, al-Khiam, as an example, in order to demonstrate to world governments and militaries this dire and cruel reality in which Hezbollah is taking advantage of civilians in order to attack Israel.
Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi added that “as for now, I do not identify an interest by Hezbollah or other factions to initiate a conflict with Israel or to cause for a deterioration of the [current] situation, but my responsibility as the head of the military is to ensure the alertness of our intelligence, our operational readiness, and the preparedness of the military for any scenario”.
Tomorrow, Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi will visit the Inter-Military Intelligence Center of the Italian Armed Forces, will hold a joint situation assessment report with his colleagues, and will visit the Supreme Joint Headquarters for Special Operations (COI)
