The Israeli army crossed the Litani River in southern Lebanon, around thirty kilometers north of the border with Israel, as part of the intensification of its military campaign against Hezbollah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Friday.
The operations launched by the IDF on March 2 against the Shiite group sponsored by Iran after the latter’s decision to join Tehran in the conflict with the United States and Israel left more than 3,200 dead, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. Health, and 1.2 million displaced people. Israel says it lost 23 soldiers and four civilians over the same period.
“Our forces have crossed the Litani and advanced to positions of control,” declared Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to soldiers deployed in northern Israel, at a time when Israeli and Lebanese military representatives were to meet in Washington to consolidate the theoretical ceasefire concluded on April 16, which is far from having put an end to the Israeli bombings on Lebanon and the firing of drones and rockets by Hezbollah on the north of the Hebrew state.
The Israeli army announced this week the intensification of its operations beyond the “security zone” occupied by its troops in southern Lebanon since April 16.
“We are operating in Beirut, in the Bekaa, along the entire front line, and we are inflicting terrible blows on Hezbollah,” Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Friday.
Speaking to his troops, Israeli army chief of staff Eyal Zamir said the IDF would continue to hunt down Hezbollah’s rocket-launching “squadrons,” their operators and commanders at every level.
According to Lebanese security forces, Israeli troops crossed the Litani on Thursday near the village of Zaoutar al-Sharqiyé before retreating to the south bank.
Israeli soldiers crossed the river again on Friday, at a location close to the Israeli border, these sources added, estimating that it was not a major advance.
The river is an important strategic axis and the dividing line south of which no armed militia is supposed to operate in Lebanon, according to a resolution passed in 2006 by the United Nations Security Council.
(Rami Ayyub à Jérusalem, Maya Gebeily à Beyrouth, Jean-Stéphane
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