— I have just ordered a further expansion of the existing buffer security zone. We are determined to completely change the situation in the north, Netanyahu said in a recording taken at the base of the Northern Command of the Israel Defense Forces.
According to the Prime Minister, expanding the zone will help strengthen the security of Israel's northern border, where fighting is taking place with Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian terrorist organization operating in Lebanon. Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Kac announced the creation of a larger zone a few days earlier.
After the killing of Iran's supreme spiritual and political leader, Ali Khamenei, in a US-Israeli attack on February 28, Iran-backed Hezbollah joined the war, declaring that it would avenge the ayatollah. Israel responded by attacking targets it considers associated with the organization and Iran.
