Israel expands occupation of southern Lebanon as minister calls for annexation

Soon after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran on February 28, Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia soon entered the fight by striking dozens of strategic targets in neighboring Israel. Since Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in 2024, US and Israeli government officials have claimed that Hezbollah was crippled and no longer able to put up a fight. However, it seems the group is far from defanged and has simply been laying low due to domestic political pressures. Since the beginning of March, Hezbollah has fired an average of 100 missiles into Israel every day.

Although Israel and Hezbollah have technically been under a “ceasefire” since late 2024, Israel has continued operating militarily in southern Lebanon, both with air assaults and a boots-on-the-ground occupation. Now, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz has announced that Israel will dramatically expand its occupation of Lebanon, all the way to the Litani River. At its nearest point, the Litani River lies about 4 miles north of the Lebanese-Israeli border and about 19 miles at its furthest point. Already, Israel has ordered the evacuation of all Lebanese civilians living south of the Litani (about 200,000 people). In total, Israel’s recent bombing throughout Lebanon (including the capital Beirut) has displaced well over 1 million people in a matter of weeks. Human rights organizations say the forced evacuation may amount to war crimes.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was even more explicit about his wishes for the territory. Smotrich has called for Israel to permanently annex the entire territory between the Israeli border and the Litani, which covers over 300 square miles. Smotrich is an outspoken proponent of the “Greater Israel” agenda, which calls for Israel to seize a huge amount of territory from its neighbors, including all of Palestine, Jordan and Kuwait and parts of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Even Israeli critics have compared Greater Israel’s extremist expansionist ideology to Hitler’s Lebensraum. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee recently drew international condemnation for publicly endorsing Greater Israel.

More information emerges about how Israel persuaded Trump to start Iran war. Corroborates statements from Omani officials and Trump-appointed counterterrorism director Joe Kent, who recently resigned in protest of the war.