Will Assume Control of Security Zone Up to Lebanon’s Litani River: Israel

"All five bridges over the Litani that were used by Hezbollah for the passage of terrorists and weapons have been blown up, and the IDF (Israeli military) will control the rest of the bridges and the security zone up to the Litani," Katz said during a visit to a military command centre in Israel.

The military said it had destroyed a bridge across the Litani river overnight, which it says was used by Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah "for transferring weapons, rockets and launchers".

Katz added that the hundreds of thousands of south Lebanon residents who were displaced by the Middle East war this month "will not return south of the Litani River until security is guaranteed for the residents of the north" of Israel.

He said that Israel's military was "following the model of Rafah and Beit Hanoun", two cities that were largely destroyed during more than two years of war in Gaza, and which remain under Israeli military control.

In southern Lebanon, Katz said this meant that the military was destroying Hezbollah infrastructure "as well as the houses in the Lebanese contact villages near the border which serve as actual terror outposts".

Several towns and villages directly across Israel's border with Lebanon had remained empty and mostly destroyed since the last war between Israel and Hezbollah, which ended with a ceasefire in November 2024.

Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israel has since launched strikes across Lebanon, killing at least 1,039 people and displacing more than a million others, and sent ground troops into the country's south.