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Israeli troops struck southern Lebanon on Saturday even as Israel's defence minister ordered troops to prepare for an extended stay in a self-declared security zone and warned Iran that any attempt to derail a recently agreed ceasefire framework would be met with overwhelming force.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had directed the Israeli Military to remain in the strip of Lebanese territory stretching up to 10 kilometres from the border.
Katz tied any future withdrawal directly to the complete disarmament of Hezbollah across all of Lebanon, not merely its retreat from the frontier area, saying there would be "no redeployment by Israel in southern Lebanon, no withdrawal," until that condition was met.
The threshold sets a demanding bar for any Israeli pullout. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group and political movement, has maintained a heavily armed presence across Lebanon for decades and has consistently refused to surrender its weapons stockpiles.
Katz also issued a direct warning to Tehran, vowing that Israel would respond with "great force" if Iran moved to undermine the Lebanese agreement through military action.
He described the deal as having delivered a "strategic blow to the Iranian axis," framing it as a broader setback for the network of armed groups Iran supports across the Middle East.
Iran has long used Hezbollah as a cornerstone of its regional influence, providing the group with financing, weapons and training. Any Israeli claim that the ceasefire arrangement weakens that relationship is likely to be fiercely contested by Tehran.
Lebanese state media reported Israeli strikes in the south on Saturday, underscoring the fragility of the ceasefire arrangement even as both sides operate within its stated parameters. Israel has maintained that strikes within the security zone are consistent with the agreement, while Lebanon has repeatedly protested Israeli military activity on its territory.
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