JERUSALEM: Israel on Tuesday said it was not seeking to take territory in Lebanon, as its military issued a wave of new evacuation warnings for towns and villages in the battle-scarred south.

Israel has been fighting Hezbollah since early March, sending troops into south Lebanon to battle the Iran-backed group, with the violence ongoing despite a shaky April 17 ceasefire.

“Israel has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon. Our presence... serves one purpose: protecting our citizens,” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told a news conference.

“No country would be willing to live in such a way with a gun pointed to its head,” he said, as the military pressed its operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah.

After the ceasefire began, Israel declared a so-called “yellow line”, marking out a strip of Lebanese territory by the border, 10 kilometres (six miles) deep, where its troops were operating.

Tuesday’s evacuation warning was aimed at residents in more than a dozen villages and towns, urging them to immediately head northwards.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2026