Netanyahu ‘committed’ to complete elimination of Iranian regime, Hezbollah

(Oct. 21, 2026 / JNS)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that his government is committed to completing the elimination of the Iranian regime and its proxy terrorist organization Hezbollah, after which peace with Lebanon will follow.

“I have spoken about this with [U.S. President Donald] Trump more than once, including the day before yesterday,” Netanyahu said while visiting the new Kiryat Shmona-Tel Hai University for the opening of the academic year, according to a statement from his office.

“Because as long as the regime remains alive, even if it is battered, wounded, and beaten, it is so fanatical that it will try again to do what it did a year ago, when we stopped it: produce nuclear bombs and rebuild the axis,” Israel’s longest-serving prime minister continued.

“Therefore, the only way to prevent this is to topple this regime, and then, in parallel, the elimination of Hezbollah will follow,” he said.

During the war, Israel has established a security zone in Southern Lebanon, pushing Hezbollah’s special Radwan Force back and “crushing” it, Netanyahu went on to say.

This security zone “is deep and empty. People have left, so it is completely different” from the area the Israel Defense Forces occupied from 1985 to 2000, Netanyahu continued, referring to roughly the same region Israeli forces are deployed in today.

After taking control of Beirut on Sept. 29, 1982, the IDF gradually withdrew southward, until it established a security zone along the Israel-Lebanon border that lasted 15 years.

Speaking alongside Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch, Netanyahu implored him to continue expanding the students’ knowledge and understanding, as well as embracing AI technology “with full force.”

“We are an intelligent people, and this is the future. It is already the present,” the premier added, according to the statement.

Katz: Hezbollah attacking Israel will cost it more Lebanese territory

Also on Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned in an Arabic-language post on X that if Hezbollah joins an Iranian attack on the State of Israel, the IDF will move into additional areas within the Nabatieh and Litani region in Lebanon’s south, “whereby the territories occupied will be evacuated of their residents ... and made a permanent part of Israel’s security zone in Lebanon.”

He went on to list Israel’s achievements in the last round of combat north of its border.

The IDF “established a security zone inside Lebanese territory covering 700 square kilometers [270 square miles], stretching from the Mediterranean coast in the west to Beaufort Castle, the Ali al-Taher heights, and the outskirts of Mount Hermon in the east,” the defense minister said.

All 200,000 Shi’ite residents have been evacuated from this area up to the so-called Yellow Line, and the Israeli military continues to destroy terrorist infrastructure within the security zone, both underground and above ground, Katz continued.

The Yellow Line designates the security zone’s northern border with Lebanon.

In addition, more than 60 Lebanese villages in the area were demolished, said Katz.

“These included 23,000 homes that served, in every sense of the word, as Hezbollah positions and threatened the safety of Galilee residents,” he stressed.

“Southern Lebanon has never experienced a reality like this, even compared with the security zones established in the past: a security zone devoid of residents, terrorist infrastructure, and homes. This is the new security doctrine that I am leading together with the prime minister, in cooperation with the Israeli military, in confronting jihadist forces,” Katz noted.

He then vowed not to withdraw Israeli forces from the area until the Iranian-backed group is “disarmed throughout Lebanon and the threat to the residents of the north is eliminated.”