Jerusalem, May 26 (EFE).- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday an escalation of attacks on Lebanon and the expansion of a new “security buffer zone.”
“We are intensifying our operations in Lebanon. The IDF is operating with significant forces on the ground and taking control of strategically dominant positions,” Netanyahu said.
“We are reinforcing the security buffer zone in order to protect the communities of northern Israel,» he added.
In a video released by his office, the prime minister stated that the decision to attack Lebanon more forcefully was made in coordination with the Minister of Defense Israel Katz and Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir.
Netanyahu also mentioned a «massive» national effort to promote «creative and innovative solutions against explosive drones» with which the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah has more effectively attacked Israeli positions in recent weeks.
Despite the April 16 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, fighting has continued on both sides of the “yellow line,” the line dividing the approximately 8% of Lebanese territory Israel continues to occupy in the south of the country.
On Tuesday, Israeli Army ground troops crossed the “yellow line” in what a military official described to EFE as “selective operations beyond the forward defense line,” aimed at “eliminating direct threats.”
On Monday night, Israel bombed more than a hundred targets in eastern and southern Lebanon, the Army reported.
This new wave of Israeli attacks killed at least 16 people in Lebanon, the Lebanese Emergency Operations Center said in a statement, 11 of them in the southeastern town of Mashghara. EFE
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