Smotrich calls for annexation of southern Lebanon

Israel should extend its border with Lebanon up to the Litani River deep inside the country’s south, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says, as Israeli troops bombed bridges and destroyed homes in the area in an escalating military assault against Hezbollah.

The comments by Smotrich are the most explicit yet by a senior Israeli official on seizing Lebanese territory in a fight Israel says targets Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

Smotrich tells an Israeli radio program that the military campaign in Lebanon “needs to end with a different reality entirely, both with the Hezbollah decision but also with the change of Israel’s borders.”

“I say here definitively…in every room and in every discussion, too: the new Israeli border must be the Litani,” Smotrich says.

Smotrich, leader of a small far-right party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, often makes comments that go beyond official Israeli policy.

Netanyahu’s office does not immediately respond to a request for comment on the remarks. Defense Minister Israel Katz hinted earlier this month at plans to capture land, saying Lebanon could face “loss of territory” if it did not disarm Hezbollah.

Smotrich’s remarks are deeply resonant in Lebanon, which is trying to emerge from a decades-old cycle of invasions and occupations by its neighbor. Israeli forces have launched repeated assaults on Lebanon since 1978 and occupied the south from 1982 to 2000.

A Lebanese official tells Reuters that Beirut is still counting on foreign powers to put enough pressure on Israel to put an end to the war, through an offer from President Joseph Aoun to hold direct talks.

Smotrich also calls for Israel to annex territory it now controls in the Gaza Strip, up to an armistice line with Hamas. A ceasefire signed in October left Israel in control of 53% of Gaza, where it has ordered residents out and bulldozed buildings.