Katz threatens to seize additional territory in southern Lebanon — Jerusalem Post
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a visit to the buffer zone that if Iran attacks Israel and the Hezbollah group joins it, Israeli forces could seize additional territory in southern Lebanon.
Threat to expand the security zone
As the Jerusalem Post reports, Katz said that in such a scenario, Hezbollah would suffer a severe blow and lose additional territory in the areas of Nabatieh and the Litani River. According to him, these areas could become part of a permanent Israeli security zone, and the Israel Defense Forces are ready for a new expanded invasion.
Katz also said that if Hezbollah attacks and the Israeli military responds, Israel will carry out a new evacuation in Dahieh, a district of Beirut that the publication calls the group’s main stronghold. In his assessment, this could lead to the displacement of more than 1 million Shiites in Lebanon. The Jerusalem Post notes that the evacuation of Dahieh has already been carried out twice since 2024.
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Nabatieh and the situation at the border
The publication writes that this is the first public statement by an Israeli official in several months containing a specific threat to seize Nabatieh. After the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect, several Israel Defense Forces representatives expressed dissatisfaction that the military had not been allowed to seize Nabatieh, which the Jerusalem Post calls one of the group’s main command centers in southern Lebanon.
According to the newspaper, the Israeli military controls a significant part of southern Lebanon up to 10 kilometers from the border. The publication claims that this is intended to make it more difficult for Hezbollah to use anti-tank missiles against Israel, whose range is limited to eight kilometers. The Jerusalem Post also reports that more than 500,000 Lebanese remain displaced because of the wars of recent years, including hundreds of thousands from the country’s southern areas.
