The military campaign has forced thousands of Lebanese to abandon their homes and villages, while IDF raids continue to demolish buildings in the area.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the military-occupied territories of southern Lebanon and announced that Israeli forces will not withdraw as long as Iran-backed Hezbollah continues to threaten Israel, despite a US-brokered security agreement reached last week that stipulates a gradual Israeli withdrawal from parts of the region.Speaking to Israeli forces during his visit, Netanyahu reiterated that Israel’s military presence will continue until the security threat posed by Hezbollah is deemed over.“Our insistence is that we will not leave southern Lebanon until the threat is removed,” Netanyahu told the soldiers, according to a statement issued by his office. “And as long as Hezbollah remains here, armed and threatening us, we will remain here as well.”Netanyahu was accompanied on the visit by Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz and senior military officials. This is his first visit to the occupied Lebanese territories since Israel and Lebanon reached a US-brokered security agreement last Friday, according to which Israeli forces are expected to hand over two areas to the Lebanese army. His previous public visit to the occupied territories was in April.Under the agreement, Israeli forces will withdraw from two “pilot areas,” allowing the Lebanese Armed Forces to take control.
However, few details have been revealed about how this arrangement will be implemented, and Netanyahu’s statements suggest that Israel’s broader military presence will remain tied to its assessment of the Hezbollah threat.Israel says its army has established a buffer zone extending about 10 kilometers into southern Lebanon along the border to protect communities in northern Israel from Hezbollah attacks.
The Israeli army says it destroyed infrastructure, including underground tunnels, used by the armed movement.The campaign also forced large numbers of Lebanese civilians to leave their homes, as Israeli forces launched raids on villages and demolished buildings in the area.During his speech to the soldiers, Netanyahu said that Hezbollah still possesses about 12,000 rockets and shells. He also claimed that the Israeli army killed 9,000 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, although he did not specify a time frame and appeared to refer to the period since the conflict escalated on March 2.
Hezbollah does not publish casualty figures. Reuters reported on May 4 that several thousand Hezbollah fighters were killed during the war.The latest conflict began after Israel invaded Lebanon following Hezbollah attacks on March 2, which the group said were launched in retaliation for US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28. The fighting has since expanded into a broader regional conflict.According to the aforementioned figures, more than 4,000 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than a million people have been displaced since the start of the Israeli military campaign in March.
Israel reported that at least 32 of its soldiers and four civilians were killed in Hezbollah attacks, most of them in southern Lebanon.Under American pressure, Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Hezbollah on June 19, although violence continued. Iran has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Lebanon as part of its negotiations with the United States aimed at ending the broader regional war that began in February. Israel, which is not directly involved in those talks, opposes linking the Lebanese conflict to negotiations on Iran.Hezbollah has repeatedly objected to the ongoing negotiations between Israel and Lebanon and did not participate in the talks.
