OCCUPIED Jerusalem — Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he had ordered the military to "further expand" a security zone in Lebanon as Israel continues its campaign in the neighbouring country.

 

"In Lebanon, I have just ordered the military to further expand the existing security zone," Netanyahu said in a video statement.

 

"This is intended to definitively neutralise the threat of invasion [by Hizbollah militants] and to keep anti-tank missile fire away from the border."

 

Netanyahu, during a visit to the northern command, said that Hizbollah still retained "residual capabilities" to fire rockets at Israel, but the group had been severely hit by Israeli forces.

 

"Iran is no longer the same Iran, Hizbollah is no longer the same Hizbollah, and Hamas is no longer the same Hamas," he said.

 

Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war when Tehran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic.

 

Israel has responded with large-scale airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground offensive in the south, with Lebanese authorities reporting at least 1,189 people killed since the hostilities broke out.