Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday threatened to seize additional territory in southern Lebanon and expand Israel’s security zone in that area in a scenario where Iran initiates a war with Israel and Hezbollah joins in.
“If Hezbollah joins Iran in an attack on Israel, it will be dealt a heavy blow and lose additional territory in southern Lebanon, in the areas of Nabatieh and the Litani [River], which will become part of a permanent Israeli security zone – the IDF is prepared to launch a [new expanded] invasion,” Katz said during a visit to the IDF's buffer zone.
This was the first time in several months that Katz or any Israeli official made the specific threat to take over Nabatieh, which the government had hoped to seize several months ago, before US President Donald Trump forced a broad ceasefire.
While Katz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have regularly threatened every Israeli adversary with severe consequences if they choose to attack Israel during the current election season, the defense minister's more specific territorial threat could signal a new leaning in some circles to further expand the security zone,
Katz framed the idea of taking over more territory solely as a potential retaliatory response. Yet there have been multiple times in the recent years of war with Hezbollah when he or other Israeli officials first floated a trial balloon of expanding an invasion, and weeks later it turned out the officials had been looking for an excuse to do so to improve the overall security equation.
Military previously prevented from seizing Nabatieh, a Hezbollah HQ
Multiple IDF officials expressed frustration when the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire kicked in that the military had been prevented from taking Nabatieh, one of the main remaining command centers of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Instead, the IDF sufficed with taking over a number of key approaches to Nabatieh in order to try to reduce its strategic multiplying power for Hezbollah in the South.
In addition, Katz said that if Hezbollah attacked Israel and the IDF responded, it would force another evacuation of Hezbollah's top stronghold of Dahiyeh in Beirut, something which it has already done twice since 2024.
“More than 1 million Shiites will become displaced in Lebanon,” he said, which Israel has also already done on a temporary basis.
Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese remain displaced from southern Lebanon
Recently, the The Jerusalem Post reported that over 500,000 Lebanese remain displaced by the multiple wars of recent years, including hundreds of thousands from southern Lebanon.
The IDF already controls much of southern Lebanon up to 10 kilometers from the border to prevent Hezbollah from being able to fire anti-tank missiles into Israel, which are limited to an eight-kilometer range.
Despite Katz's threats, many of his threats during election season have been for political consumption, and few so far have led to actual new major military action, even as Israel continues to carry out some lower-grade actions against Hezbollah.
Israel was forced into a ceasefire with Hezbollah both by Trump and because it did not want to fall into another round of all-out fighting with Iran at this time.