Defense Minister Israel Katz has warned Hezbollah against attacking Israel, saying the Israeli army was capable of occupying more Lebanese territories and displacing more than a million Shiites. "Hezbollah will suffer a severe blow and lose additional territories in southern Lebanon within the Nabatieh and Litani regions, which will become part of Israel's permanent security zone. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is prepared to carry out the maneuver," Katz said on Wednesday. Speaking from the self-declared security zone Israeli forces are occupying in southern Lebanon, Katz said that a million Shiites would be displaced and that Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut would not be spared. Israel launched airstrikes and a ground invasion in southern Lebanon this year in parallel with the war in Iran, after Hezbollah fired into Israel in revenge for Israeli-American attacks against Tehran. Hundreds of thousands of people from Lebanon's Shiite community were uprooted by the fighting.
