(SeaPRwire) – Bezalel Smotrich has suggested that hundreds of square kilometers of land reaching the Litani River should be taken,
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has declared that Israel ought to capture large areas of southern Lebanon during its current operations against Hezbollah. Speaking on Israeli radio Monday, he proposed shifting the border to the Litani River, which sits approximately 40 kilometers from the current boundary.
West Jerusalem began its military offensive against Hezbollah in early March following a series of strikes by the Lebanese group. These attacks were reportedly in response to the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which came after a joint US-Israeli operation against Iran on February 28.
Israel has instructed residents in southern Lebanon to evacuate areas south of the Litani River, citing “limited and targeted ground operations against key Hezbollah strongholds.” Lebanese officials report that Israeli strikes have resulted in over 880 deaths, 2,000 injuries, and the displacement of more than one million people in the last two weeks.
“I say here definitively… in every room and in every discussion, too: the new Israeli border must be the Litani,” Smotrich remarked. He further stated that the offensive “needs to end with a different reality entirely, both with the Hezbollah decision but also with the change of Israel’s borders.”
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet commented on the matter. Previously, Defense Minister Israel Katz suggested that Lebanon might lose territory if Hezbollah is not disarmed. On Sunday, the Israeli military revealed intentions to broaden its air and ground activities in southern Lebanon.
A Lebanese official informed Reuters that Beirut is looking for international pressure to stop West Jerusalem’s campaign. Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron labeled Israel’s actions in Lebanon as “inappropriate and even unacceptable,” noting that previous military efforts against Hezbollah have failed to achieve their goals.
Israel has conducted several military campaigns against Hezbollah since 1978 and maintained an occupation of southern Lebanon from 1982 until 2000.
This article is provided by a third-party content provider. SeaPRwire (https://www.seaprwire.com/) makes no warranties or representations regarding its content.
Category: Top News, Daily News
SeaPRwire provides global press release distribution services for companies and organizations, covering more than 6,500 media outlets, 86,000 editors and journalists, and over 3.5 million end-user desktop and mobile apps. SeaPRwire supports multilingual press release distribution in English, Japanese, German, Korean, French, Russian, Indonesian, Malay, Vietnamese, Chinese, and more.