Israeli minister calls for annexation of southern Lebanon

Hundreds of square kilometers of territory up to the Litani River should be seized, Bezalel Smotrich has said

Israel should seize vast swathes of land in southern Lebanon as part of its ongoing campaign against Hezbollah militants, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has stated. The new border should be moved all the way to the Litani River, located nearly 40 kilometers from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, he said on Israeli radio on Monday.

West Jerusalem started a military campaign against Hezbollah in early March after the Lebanese-based militant movement launched waves of strikes on the Jewish state in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The attacks followed a joint US-Israeli campaign against Iran launched on February 28.

Israel has since ordered all residents of southern Lebanon to leave the area south of the Litani due to what it called “limited and targeted ground operations against key Hezbollah strongholds.” According to the Lebanese authorities, the Israeli strikes have killed over 880 people over the past two weeks, with more than 2,000 injured and over one million displaced.

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“I say here definitively... in every room and in every discussion, too: the new Israeli border must be the Litani,” Smotrich said. The campaign “needs to end with a different reality entirely, both with the Hezbollah decision but also with the change of Israel’s borders,” he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has not responded to a request by Reuters to comment. Previously, Defense Minister Israel Katz also said that Lebanon could lose territory if it fails to disarm Hezbollah. On Sunday, the Israeli military announced plans to expand both ground and air operations in southern Lebanon.

A Lebanese official told Reuters that Beirut expects foreign nations to put pressure on West Jerusalem to halt its campaign. Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Israel’s actions in Lebanon as “inappropriate and even unacceptable.” He also argued that repeated Israeli operations against Hezbollah have never produced the desired results.

Israel has launched military campaigns against Hezbollah on multiple occasions since 1978 and occupied southern Lebanon between 1982 and 2000.