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Israeli minister calls for annexation of South Lebanon

23-03-2026 | 08:57

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Israeli minister calls for annexation of South Lebanon

Israel should extend its border with Lebanon up to the Litani River deep inside the country's south, Israel's finance minister said on Monday as Israeli troops bombed bridges and destroyed homes in the area in an escalating military assault.

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

Smotrich told 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 said.

Reuters

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