Israel said last week it was enlarging a "buffer zone" up to the Litani River. It was not immediately clear whether Netanyahu was referring to that area or to the seizure of additional territory.
"I have now instructed to further expand the existing security zone in order to finally thwart the threat of invasion and to push the anti-tank missile fire away from our border," Netanyahu said in a video statement from Israeli Northern Command.
His office declined to provide further details, and the matter has not yet been discussed by the security cabinet.
Last week, Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces would "control the remaining bridges and the security zone up to the Litani," a river that meets the Mediterranean about 30 km (20 miles) north of Israel's border.
Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel after the United States and Israel launched air strikes on Iran.
More than 400 fighters from Hezbollah have been killed since the Lebanese armed group launched the opening salvoes of a new war with Israel on March 2, sources familiar with Hezbollah's count told Reuters.
Israeli strikes and ground operations have killed more than 1,100 people in Lebanon, including children, women and medical personnel, according to the Lebanese health ministry. It does not otherwise distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Israeli military has said four of its soldiers have been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon.
Netanyahu said the decision aimed to strengthen Israel's security position along its northern frontier.
"We eliminated thousands of Hezbollah terrorists, and above all, we eliminated the immense threat of 150,000 missiles and rockets that were intended to destroy the cities of Israel," he said.
"However, Hezbollah still has a residual capability to launch rockets at us...we are determined to fundamentally change the situation in the north."
He said Israel was conducting a multi-front campaign against Iran and allied groups, including Hezbollah and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, and said Israel's actions were weakening Iran’s regional influence.
Israel kills journalists, health workers
Israeli forces killed three Lebanese journalists in southern Lebanon on Saturday in an airstrike that Israel's military said had targeted one of the reporters, with a follow‑up strike on the rescue workers sent to assist them also causing fatalities.
Lebanon's health ministry said medics were directly targeted en route to the scene of an earlier strike on journalists.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has accused Hezbollah of using medical facilities for military purposes and warned it would attack hospitals if the group does not change course.
WHO CONDEMNS ATTACKS ON HEALTH WORKERS
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X in response to the killings that health workers were protected under international humanitarian law and "should never be targeted", without mentioning Israel.
Israeli strikes killed two soldier in the Lebanese army in the south on Saturday, the Lebanese military said in separate statements on X.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that the Air Force had struck more than 100 targets in Lebanon since Friday.
Saturday's strike is the first time Israel has acknowledged killing a journalist in Lebanon.
Lebanese television news channel Al Manar said its reporter Ali Shaib and reporter Fatima Ftouni, from Lebanese pan-Arab broadcaster Al Mayadeen, were killed when their vehicle was hit. Lebanon's information minister, Paul Morcos, later said Ftouni's brother, Mohammed, a cameraman, had also been killed.
Israel's military said in a statement it had killed Shaib, whom it called a "terrorist", in a targeted strike, accusing him of being part of a Hezbollah intelligence unit, and said he had reported on locations of Israeli soldiers in Lebanon.
The statement, which also accused Shaib of "incitement" against Israeli soldiers and civilians, did not mention the other journalists or provide evidence to support its assertion that Shaib was a member of a Hezbollah intelligence unit.
Hezbollah, which controls Al Manar, denied Shaib was part of one of its intelligence units.
"The enemy’s false claims are nothing but an expression of its weakness and fragility, and a desperate attempt to evade responsibility for this crime," it said in a statement.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun described the journalists as "civilians doing their professional duty."
"It is a brazen crime that violates all treaties and norms through which journalists enjoy international protection in war," he said in a statement on X.
More than 1,180 people have been killed in Lebanon since U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, according to the country's authorities, who do not otherwise distinguish between civilians and militants.
'GROWING RISKS TO JOURNALISTS'
Al Manar described Shaib as an "icon of resistance reporting." Al Mayadeen, which is widely perceived as editorially aligned with Hezbollah, and Iran's allies and supporters in the region, said Fatima Ftouni had been distinguished by her brave and objective reporting.
In response to the killings, Reporters Without Borders said it had been raising the alarm for weeks about the growing risks facing media professionals.
The killings followed the death of Hussain Hamood, a Lebanese freelance journalist working for Al Manar who the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on X was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday.
At least three other reporters in Lebanon, Iran and Gaza have been killed in Israeli or joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes since the Iran war began on February 28, CPJ said on Thursday. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the Israeli military.
An Israeli strike in October 2024 hit a collection of guesthouses housing only reporters in the southern Lebanese town of Hasbaya, killing two journalists from Al Mayadeen and one from Al Manar, prompting global condemnation.
