Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday threatened to seize additional territory in southern Lebanon, expanding Israel’s security zone 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 floated a trial balloon regarding the expansion of an invasion, and then weeks later it turned out the officials had been looking for an excuse 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, saying that the military had been prevented from taking Nabatieh, one of the main remaining command centers of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Instead, the IDF had to make do with several key approaches to Nabatieh to try to reduce its strategic multiplying power for Hezbollah in the South.
In addition, Katz said that if Hezbollah attacked Israel and the military 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 one million Shiites will become displaced in Lebanon,” he said.
Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese remain displaced from southern Lebanon
Recently, 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 8-kilometer range.
Many of Katz’s threats, made 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.
Though Israel was forced into a ceasefire with Hezbollah by US President Donald Trump, it also did not want to fall into another round of all-out fighting with Iran at that time.