Benjamin Netanyahu announces expansion of Israeli security buffer zone in southern Lebanon
The Israeli Prime Minister met with the IDF for a situation assessment, where he gave the order to expand the security zone to "definitively thwart the invasion threat" and to push missile fire away from the Israeli border
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced an expansion of the security buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
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The Israeli Prime Minister met with the IDF for a situation assessment, where he gave the order to expand the security zone to "definitively thwart the invasion threat" and to push missile fire away from the Israeli border.
Conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese Islamist group, reignited on March 2.
He also discussed removing Hezbollah's capacity to launch rockets at Israel with IDF commanders.
Mr Netanyahu said in a video statement on Sunday: "I have just instructed to further expand the existing security buffer zone. We are determined to fundamentally change the situation in the north.
"We will not tolerate a reality of ongoing threat to our settlements and citizens. We will continue to act with strength, determination, and responsibility until we achieve the goal."
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It comes as Hezbollah launched about 250 projectiles from Lebanon over the weekend, according to an Israeli military official.
The official said most of the projectiles were aimed at Israeli soldiers operating in southern Lebanon and only 23 crossed into Israel.
He added that Israel is creating “visible cracks in the terror regime in Tehran.”
“Iran is not the same Iran.
“Hezbollah is not the same Hezbollah, and Hamas is not the same Hamas.”
He went on to say that they are “battered enemies fighting for their very existence.”
“Instead of them surprising us, we are surprising them,” he said.
“We are the side that is acting, we are the side that is attacking, we are the side that is initiating, and we are deep in their territory.”
An Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed three journalists who were covering the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, their TV stations said.
Hezbollah's al-Manar TV said its longtime correspondent Ali Shoeib was killed in southern Lebanon.
Israel's military said it had targeted Mr Shoeib, accusing him of being a Hezbollah intelligence operative, without providing evidence.
A well-known Lebanese war correspondent, Mr Shoeib had covered southern Lebanon for al-Manar TV for nearly three decades.
Meanwhile, Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV said reporter Fatima Ftouni was killed in the same airstrike in the southern district of Jezzine along with her brother Mohammed, a video journalist.
She had just been on air with a live report before the strike.
Top officials in Lebanon condemned the strike, with President Joseph Aoun calling it a "flagrant crime that violates all laws and agreements that protect journalists".
The Israeli army claimed that Mr Shoeib was "operating systematically to expose the locations of (Israeli) soldiers operating in southern Lebanon".
It also accused him of maintaining contact with Hezbollah militants and inciting against Israeli troops and civilians, without elaborating.
Al-Manar TV did not respond to the Israeli allegations but described its correspondent as "distinguished by his professional and credible reporting of events".
Lebanese officials have claimed that more than 1,100 people have been killed in the fighting since the Iran war began.