Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have ordered their military to "advance and seize additional strategic heights" in Lebanon, CNN reports. As AP notes, a Hezbollah official, meanwhile, declared "open war" with Israel, UNN writes.
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The country's defense minister said he and Netanyahu urged the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to "prevent fire and protect Israeli border communities" in a video address on Tuesday.
"The IDF operated throughout the night and continued to take control of the area," the minister said, adding: "The IDF continues to act powerfully against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon."
According to a Lebanese military source, after Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon, the Lebanese military "redeployed" hundreds of soldiers who were near the border further north.
Speaking to CNN, the source said that Israeli troops have currently advanced "hundreds of meters deep into Lebanese territory," not kilometers, adding that there has been no confrontation between Lebanese and Israeli forces so far.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday during a visit to an Israeli air force base that his military plans to respond with even greater force to volleys from Iran and Lebanon.
"Our pilots are over the skies of Iran and Tehran, and over the skies of Lebanon. Hezbollah made a very big mistake when it attacked us," Netanyahu said.
He added that the Lebanese government and the Lebanese people must understand that Iran-backed Hezbollah "is dragging them into a war that is not theirs, only because of the death of this mass murderer, with whom they have nothing to do."
Before that, the Israeli military stated that Hezbollah still has launch capabilities and missile stockpiles, as it increased the number of strikes on militant targets in Lebanon.
"Hezbollah still has launch capabilities against Israel," said IDF spokesman Brigadier General Effi Defrin at a briefing on Tuesday morning. "It maintains missile stockpiles, although they have suffered significant damage – both missiles and drones."
Meanwhile, Israel expanded its offensive against Hezbollah, seizing more locations in southern Lebanon and striking what it said were militant targets in Lebanon. The IDF also issued evacuation warnings for villages in southern Lebanon ahead of anticipated strikes.
"We hit them and will continue to hit them," Defrin said.
Meanwhile, as AP notes, senior Hezbollah official Mohamoud Komati said on Tuesday that after more than a year of adhering to a ceasefire agreement while Israel continued to strike Lebanon, the group's patience had run out, leaving it no choice "but to return to resistance" and wage "open war" with Israel.
Komati said that Hezbollah had shown patience since the signing of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024, hoping that the government's diplomatic efforts would yield positive results in ending Israeli strikes.
In comments published by Hezbollah's press office, Komati criticized the Lebanese government for calling Hezbollah's actions illegal and demanding that it surrender its weapons, saying that it had taken no action to stop Israel's airstrikes, which continued almost daily for nearly 15 months.
"The Zionist enemy wanted an open war, which it has not stopped since the signing of the ceasefire agreement," Komati said. "So let it be an open war."