Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday said that the evacuated northern residents will not return to their cities and homes before the hostages held by Hamas are returned.
In a meeting with hostage families, he wanted to reassure them that Israel was doing everything both militarily and diplomatically to bring back the around 100 living hostages and the 30+ killed hostages' bodies.
Although his formulation that northern residents would need to wait to return home until the hostages are returned was in some ways not surprising, it was also a more explicit admission than usual that it will likely be months before the threat from Hezbollah is neutralized, even if a temporary ceasefire with Hamas is reached.
Dealing with the threat from Hezbollah
Hezbollah has said that it will cease attacking Israel the moment a ceasefire is reached with Hamas which prevents Israel from new military activities within Gaza.
However, Gallant has consistently said, including on Sunday, that the IDF will continue to attack Hezbollah until all of its forces are pushed away from the border with Israel around to a point north of the Litani River.
Since even the current possible hostage deal describes an initial period of 45 days followed by a period of months until a full hostage exchange is accomplished, this could easily take the continued evacuation of northern residents out to the summer.
Possibly not incidentally, on Sunday the government extended special rights for northern evacuees until July 7.