Israel will remain in Lebanon “as long as necessary”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today, quoted by Agence France-Presse, BTA reported.
He added that he would make the Islamist movement “Hezbollah” pay dearly after it became clear that four Israeli soldiers were killed during an operation.
The Israeli army “will remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon as long as necessary to protect the cities in the northern part” of Israel, Netanyahu said in a statement. "Israel does not accept attacks on our soldiers or on our territory," he added.
Defense Minister Israel Katz, for his part, warned of an Israeli response "with significant force" to any attack by "Hezbollah," a group allied with Iran.
A Lebanese lawmaker from "Hezbollah" Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters that Iran had informed the movement that talks with the United States could not continue without a complete ceasefire.
He called on the Lebanese government to reject any direct talks with Israel while Israeli attacks on Lebanon continued, and stressed that Washington had a responsibility to ensure that Israel would stop its attacks and fulfill the terms of the agreement.
Earlier, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that all of Lebanon should burn, following the deaths of four Israeli soldiers killed in the neighboring country.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also said that they had carried out and would continue to carry out strikes on fighters and infrastructure of the Lebanese pro-Iranian movement “Hezbollah“ in several areas of southern Lebanon that night. The IDF added that the attacks were in response to repeated ceasefire violations by “Hezbollah“.