Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Hezbollah must be pushed back beyond the Litani river, with or without a ceasefire deal in place, and that the Iran-backed group must be prevented from rearming.
"With or without an agreement, the key to returning our (evacuated) residents in the north safely to their homes is to keep back Hezbollah beyond the Litani, to strike its every attempt rearm, and to respond forcefully against all action against us," Netanyahu said during a visit to the border with Lebanon.
The Litani river is roughly 30 km inside Lebanon from the border with Israel.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles from Lebanon into Israel in solidarity with Hamas immediately after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.
The yearlong cross-border fighting boiled over to full-blown war on Oct. 1, when Israeli forces launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006.
The death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon has now climbed to 2,986 and the number of injured to 13,402 since October 2023, including 18 dead and 83 injured in the past 24 hours, the Lebanese health ministry said on Sunday.
At least 772 of those killed were women and children, the ministry added in a statement.
