Hegseth confirms Netanyahu meeting as Hezbollah raises alert level in Lebanon

A Pentagon chief's quiet visit to Israel and a Lebanese militia's heightened posture put the northern front back in view.

Hegseth confirms Netanyahu meeting as Hezbollah raises alert level in Lebanon — Pete Hegseth confirmed he met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to US troops in Israel on Monday, and then declined to say what they discussed. "I was there visiting our troops, [and] had a chance to talk to the prime minister," he said. "Of course, the nature of our conversation is not something I would talk about, but they've been good partners."[^1] The confirmation is thin on substance but thick on signal: the US defense chief was in the country, sat with its leader, and chose to characterize the relationship as partnership rather than pressure. Across the border, Hezbollah has raised the alert level of its forces in Lebanon, according to a report from the Lebanese channel Al-Jadeed. The same report said operatives had moved from the south of the country toward the Dahieh, the organization's stronghold in southern Beirut — a claim sources who spoke with Al-Jadeed denied.[^2] The two accounts cannot both be right. What is verifiable is the posture: a militia adjusting its readiness while its political environment stays unsettled. On the other side of the region, the Houthis struck a residential area in Taiz on Tuesday, killing two teenage girls and wounding six people.[^3] The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, said the siege of the city has put civilians at "grave risk."[^4] A Houthi strike on a government military camp killed 73 recruits, a figure that sits alongside the Taiz toll as evidence of a war that has not paused for anyone's diplomacy. In Washington, the Hind Rajab Foundation filed a complaint with the US Department of Justice demanding the arrest of an Israeli citizen identified as S.G. The filing is one more attempt to use foreign legal systems as a lever, and it lands while Hegseth's visit is still being parsed for what it did or did not settle. The question worth holding: if the northern front is being watched more closely than it is being discussed, what would actually count as a de-escalation — a militia standing down, or a visitor saying more than he did? Gantz exit reshuffles the race as Likud concedes wasted mandates — At Kibbutz Be'eri, kib