Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the country faces “complicated days” as it stepped up strikes against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reports.

“I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north — that is exactly what we are doing,” he said in a message issued following a situational assessment at military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

He called on Israelis to stay united as the campaign unfolded.