Israel wants to occupy new areas in Lebanon. Netanyahu: “We are determined to fundamentally change the situation”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the army to expand the “security zone” in southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces are conducting operations against Hezbollah, AFP and Reuters report, quoted by Agerpres.
“In Lebanon, we have just ordered the further expansion of the existing security zone to definitively neutralize the threat of invasion and remove anti-tank missile fire from the border,” Netanyahu said in a video message from the northern command on Sunday.
“We are determined to fundamentally change the situation in the north,” he added.
On March 24, the Israeli military announced it would occupy an area of southern Lebanon stretching from the border to the Litani River, about 30 kilometers to the north, to ensure its security, according to Defense Minister Israel Katz.
“The five bridges over Litani that were used by Hezbollah to cross terrorists and weapons have been destroyed, and (the army) will control the other bridges and the security area up to Litani,” Katz said.
“The hundreds of thousands of residents of southern Lebanon who were evacuated to the north will not return south of Litani until the security of the residents of the north (of Israel) is ensured,” the minister added.
The army is asking for more soldiers
Two days later, Brigadier General Effie Defrin, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), told a press briefing that the buffer zone that Israeli forces are trying to create in southern Lebanon “requires additional forces.”
The IDF operates on several fronts, and “for that, more combat soldiers are needed,” the army representative said.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced that Israeli strikes have killed 1,238 people, including 124 children, since March 2.
On Saturday and Sunday alone, 49 people were killed, the ministry said. Among them were ten members of the rescue teams and three journalists.
Over a million people have taken refuge due to the bombings and evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army.
