Israeli PM Netanyahu delivers bold statement over Palestine amid UN’s Gaza children report row
Jun 28, 2026
June 28, 2026 (ANI): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, on June 27, both the US and Lebanon recognise its security zone inside Lebanon under an agreement made a day earlier. In his statement, Netanyahu showed a map of the two 'pilot zones' that Israel had agreed to eventually hand over to the Lebanese army as part of the agreement. One of them was entirely outside of the area that Israeli troops occupy, while the other was on the edge of the expanded occupation area Israel announced last week. The framework agreed on June 26 provides for a phased Israeli withdrawal from some parts of southern Lebanon, alongside the deployment of the Lebanese army. But Israeli forces would be permitted to remain in an expanded security zone for the time being.Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has rejected the US-brokered security agreement on June 27, describing it as a surrender to Israel.Qassem said the Iran-U.S. memorandum of understanding reached earlier this month, which guarantees Lebanon's territorial integrity, should serve as the basis for ending the conflict, rather than Friday's Washington agreement.More than a million Lebanese have been driven from their homes by a conflict that has run in parallel with the wider Iran war. Hezbollah and Iran say Washington pledged to end hostilities in Lebanon as