The Israeli army will remain in territory occupied in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip \u201cindefinitely,\u201d Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Thursday, Anadolu reports.<\/p>\n
The army \u201cwill remain in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza \u2013 indefinitely,\u201d Katz said at a combat officers\u2019 course graduation ceremony at the Israel Forces Officers Training School, as cited by Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommanders and soldiers have all the necessary backing to complete their mission and defend themselves and the citizens of Israel,\u201d he reportedly added.<\/p>\n
Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 4,200 people and injured over 12,000 others since March 2, according to official Lebanese figures.<\/p>\n
Israel continues to occupy areas in southern Lebanon, some held for decades and others seized during the 2023-2024 war. During its latest offensive, Israeli forces advanced more than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) into Lebanese territory.<\/p>\n
In Gaza, the Israeli army occupies more than 50% of the Palestinian enclave following a deadly war that killed more than 73,000 people and injured over 173,000 others since October 2023.<\/p>\n
In Syria, Israel has occupied most of Syria\u2019s Golan Heights since the June 1967 war and expanded its occupation after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024.<\/p>\n
On Dec. 8, 2024, Israel declared the collapse of the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria and occupied the Syrian buffer zone, while Damascus said it remained committed to the agreement.<\/p>\n
Katz vowed that Israel will strike Iran \u201cwith full force \u2013 in a manner that will clearly demonstrate the power gap between us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel and the US launched joint attacks on Iran in February, triggering retaliatory strikes targeting US military assets across the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Last week, the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding that calls for ending hostilities across multiple fronts, including Lebanon, as part of efforts to reach a lasting peace agreement between the two sides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Israeli army will remain in territory occupied in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip \u201cindefinitely,\u201d Israeli Defence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-511034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}