By Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM, March 31 (Reuters) – Israel will destroy all homes in Lebanese villages near the border and 600,000 people who fled the south will not be allowed home until northern Israel is secure, the defence minister said on Tuesday, vowing to inflict Gaza-like destruction in the area.
Israel Katz reiterated Israeli plans to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, saying that it would maintain control over a swathe of territory up to the Litani River once the war with Iran-backed Hezbollah group ended.
More than 1.2 million people have been displaced and another 1,200 have been killed in Lebanon since Israel launched an offensive against Hezbollah on March 2, ignited by the group’s decision to open fire in support of Tehran in the regional war.
The Litani River meets the Mediterranean about 30 km (20 miles) north of Israel’s border, and the area between it and the Israeli border amounts to nearly a 10th of Lebanon’s territory.
The Israeli military (IDF) earlier this month ordered residents to leave swathes of the south, the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, and the group’s political heartlands in eastern Lebanon.
‘RAFAH’ MODEL
“At the end of the operation, the IDF will establish a security zone inside Lebanon — a line of defence against anti-tank missiles — and will maintain security control over the entire area up to the Litani River, including the remaining Litani bridges,” Katz said in a statement.
Israeli forces would eliminate Hezbollah’s elite Radwan fighters who infiltrated the south and destroy all weapons, he said. Displaced residents would not be allowed to return south of the Litani “until the safety and security of residents of northern Israel is guaranteed”, he added.
“All houses in villages near the Lebanese border will be destroyed, in accordance with the model used in Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza, in order to permanently remove the threats near the border to northern residents,” he said.
HEZBOLLAH FIRED 5,000 DRONES, MISSILES
Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said that Hezbollah had fired almost 5,000 drones, rockets and missiles at Israel during the conflict. The Israeli military also announced a new wave of strikes it said were targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The war is the second major conflict between Israel and Hezbollah since 2024. Israel dealt Hezbollah heavy blows in the last war, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and thousands of its fighters.
The Lebanese health ministry has reported that 1,247 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, including 124 children and 52 medics.
Sources told Reuters last week that more than 400 Hezbollah fighters had been killed.
The Israeli military has reported that 10 of its soldiers have been killed in fighting with Hezbollah, a group founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to export the Islamic Revolution and fight Israeli forces who invaded that year.
(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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