Israel says 'centre of gravity' of war moving north

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00:00It will require then courage, determination and perseverance as well, that from Israel's

00:06defence minister as he spoke to Israeli troops to say a new phase in the war is beginning.

00:11He also made what was perhaps the closest to an admission yet that Israel carried out

00:15the attacks in Lebanon over the last two days. He didn't make any mention of the exploding

00:20devices, but he did praise the work of the security agencies, saying the results are

00:25very impressive. Today the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, is due to speak after two

00:30days in which well over 30 people have been killed and well over 3,000 injured.

00:34Well, let's hear first of all then from the defence minister, Yoav Galand.

00:42The centre of gravity is moving north, meaning that we are allocating forces, resources and

00:48energy northwards. We have not forgotten the hostages and we have not forgotten our missions

00:53in the south. We are committed to our duties and we are carrying them out simultaneously.

01:03A little earlier I spoke to our correspondent in Jerusalem, Iris Mackler.

01:09We heard from the prime minister, the defence minister and Israel's military chief of staff.

01:14They all say the focus is shifting. Israel is diverting forces, resources and energy

01:19to quote the defence minister, to the north. They've also let it be known that they are

01:23moving divisions from Gaza, fighting men from Gaza and from the West Bank to the northern

01:30border. All of this ahead of the speech by Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah this evening to see

01:35what his response, what response Hezbollah is planning to the two days of attacks, the

01:43cyber attacks, I think you'd call it, exploding. First Pagers, then walkie talkies that happened

01:50across Lebanon, mostly in Shia areas, mostly in Hezbollah areas. So while they wait, they're

01:56making this show of force without any admission that it was an Israeli action. And it's interesting

02:02because, you know, the problems in the north of Israel, that is 70,000 people displaced,

02:08something like 8,000 rockets fired in by Hezbollah over this time, more than 45 people

02:15killed. They go on and they have been going on in a war of attrition. The Israeli government

02:21has basically ignored until this week, adding to its war aims, returning those civilians

02:27displaced from their homes in the north to the north. Questions are being asked whether this

02:32action that was taken, this extraordinary cyber action that felt like something from a spy movie

02:38over the past two days, whether that actually helps achieve that aim or whether it was a

02:43preemptive strike for a ground offensive. We don't know the answer to that. We're waiting to hear

02:48from Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, but we can see a show of strength from Israel ahead of that speech.

02:55Yeah, you talk about being like a spy movie Israel, Iris. I mean,

02:59more details seem to be emerging, don't they, about how Israel might have done this?

03:04That's right. You know, there's no confirm or deny here, but there's some surreal

03:08thing where once that top line is said, then there's a whole discussion about how

03:13the party that did it, and Israel is named, did do it. We've seen a long piece in the New York

03:19Times today that suggests, they've spoken to 12 serving and former security agents,

03:25and they suggest that in effect, this was like some kind of cyber Trojan horse, because our

03:33Beirut correspondent, Rawad Taha, was saying that Hezbollah is looking at the supply chain to see

03:38where this happened, because they stored the pagers and the walkie-talkies for a number of

03:43months in the port. But what we are hearing from the New York Times this morning is, in fact,

03:47that it was an Israeli front company that built, there were a number of shell companies, but the

03:54Israeli front company actually built those pagers and those walkie-talkies so that they were exported

04:01in with the explosives inside them, and then could be operated from an Israeli source when

04:07the time was chosen. So that's a remarkable story, because not only is it a cyber Trojan horse,

04:16updated for the 21st century, it's also an amazing operation in terms of a psychological impact on

04:23Hezbollah, even though its military impact, if it's not followed up by a ground offensive,

04:28may not be large, its psychological impact is.

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