Israel will seize control of new areas of southern Lebanon , Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, as his far-right government steps up efforts to depopulate and occupy swathes of the country's territory.
The Israeli military has forcibly displaced more than one million Lebanese civilians and launched a ground invasion of the country's south after Hezbollah intervened in the Iran war more than three weeks ago.
In a video statement, Netanyahu vowed to expand what he called a "security buffer" zone across the border.
"We are determined to fundamentally change the situation in Lebanon," he said.
Israel launched deadly and indiscriminate strikes on southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut after Iran-backed Hezbollah carried out rocket strikes on Israel following the US-Israeli assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the end of last month.
Nearly 1,100 people have been killed and 3,119 injured according to Lebanese authorities.
The Israeli military has ordered civilians living south of the Zahrani River – 40 kilometres from the Lebanon-Israel border - as well as residents of Beirut's southern suburbs to flee, triggering the country's most severe displacement crisis in a generation.
Netanyahu's statement came a day after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces would continue to occupy Lebanese territory south of the Litani River after the war. Extremist members of the Israeli government, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have demanded that Israel go further and annex the land for Jewish settlement. Human rights groups have warned that Israel may inflict the kind of destruction seen in Gaza on areas of Lebanon and urged the international community to protect civilians.
Katz said earlier this month that he had ordered the destruction of civilian homes in depopulated areas and vowed to ethnically cleanse Shia communities from the region. Warplanes have bombed bridges crossing the Litani River, cutting off the south from the rest of the country.
"The Gaza model must not be replicated in Lebanon," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday. No negotiations Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem ruled out any ceasefire talks with Israel on Wednesday, saying that negotiations during the conflict would amount to surrender.
Lebanon's government has offered to enter direct talks with Israel to disarm the Iran-backed group and end the conflict, a proposal which has been rejected by Netanyahu's government.
"When negotiations with the Israeli enemy are proposed under fire, this is an imposition of surrender," Qassem said.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets across the border since Israel and the US assassinated Khamenei.
The group said on Wednesday it had carried out 80 attacks – its largest daily number of the war – and clashed with Israeli forces in nine towns near the border
The Israeli military said one of its soldiers was killed in fighting, taking its total death toll in Lebanon since 2 March to three.