Overview
- An IDF source said disarming Hezbollah is not an operational objective for the current campaign and described it as a longer-term political goal.
- Defense Minister Israel Katz reaffirmed that Israel’s supreme objective in Lebanon is Hezbollah’s disarmament through military and diplomatic means.
- The military says it is finishing ground maneuvers up to an anti-tank line inside Lebanon to shield Israeli border towns from missile fire.
- Israeli officials plan to keep security control around the Litani River and say roughly 600,000 displaced southern Lebanese will not be allowed to return until conditions are judged safe, extending the strain on families split between temporary housing and damaged villages.
- Katz said the IDF will keep striking Hezbollah leaders across Lebanon, citing about 1,000 operatives killed so far, and he warned of forceful responses to rocket fire while leaders weigh a fixed security zone versus a mobile defense posture in the south.