Four Israeli soldiers killed in southern Lebanon
iranwar
The Israeli military said on Tuesday that four of its personnel were killed and two wounded during combat in southern Lebanon.
An army statement named three soldiers from the same battalion who "fell during combat". In a separate statement, it said another soldier had been killed in the same incident and two others wounded, without naming them.
Israel will destroy all homes in Lebanese villages near the border and 600,000 people who fled the south will not be allowed home until northern Israel is secure, the defence minister said on Tuesday, vowing to inflict Gaza-like destruction in the area.
Israel Katz reiterated Israeli plans to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, saying that it would maintain control over a swathe of territory up to the Litani River once the war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group ended.
More than 1.2 million people have been displaced and another 1,200 have been killed in Lebanon since Israel launched an offensive against Hezbollah on March 2, ignited by the group's decision to open fire in support of Tehran in the regional war.
The Litani River meets the Mediterranean about 30 km (20 miles) north of Israel's border, and the area between it and the Israeli border amounts to nearly a 10th of Lebanon's territory.
The Israeli military earlier this month ordered residents to leave swathes of the south, the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, and the group's political heartlands in eastern Lebanon.
Lebanon's minister of social affairs Haneen Sayed told Reuters that Israel's ground operation, which she described as a "land grab," was deepening the risk that Lebanese would be stuck in long-term displacement.
'RAFAH MODEL'
Katz said Israeli forces would eliminate Hezbollah's elite Radwan fighters who infiltrated the south and destroy all weapons.
"At the end of the operation, the IDF (Israeli military) will establish a security zone inside Lebanon - a line of defence against anti-tank missiles - and will maintain security control over the entire area up to the Litani River, including the remaining Litani bridges," he said in a statement.
Displaced residents would not be allowed to return south of the Litani "until the safety and security of residents of northern Israel is guaranteed", he added.
"All houses in villages near the Lebanese border will be destroyed, in accordance with the model used in Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza, in order to permanently remove the threats near the border to northern residents," he said.
Tom Dannenbaum, a law professor at Stanford Law School, said the laws of war require that any controlled demolition of homes be justified by "absolute military necessity," adding that destroying all homes near the border would not meet that standard. "The unnecessary destruction of property can qualify as a war crime," he said.
Dannenbaum added that Katz's comments barring residents from returning home "strongly indicate an illegal policy of long-term or permanent displacement."
Senior Israeli military officials have said troops searched homes in southern Lebanon and concluded that the
partial or total destruction of villages was
justified by claims that Hezbollah stored weapons in homes.