Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday condemned what he called Israel’s “illegal invasion” of southern Lebanon, which he said is a violation of territorial sovereignty.
Carney told reporters in French in Wakefield, Que., that a ceasefire is necessary between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, against which Israeli forces have launched a renewed offensive.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier Tuesday that Israel plans to control a 30-kilometre area between the Israel-Lebanon border and the Litani River — about one-tenth of Lebanon’s territory — even after the fighting with Hezbollah ends.
“It’s an illegal invasion — it’s an invasion of Lebanon,” Carney said in English. “It’s a violation of their territorial sovereignty.
“From a practical perspective, the government of Lebanon has banned Hezbollah, is trying to take action against Hezbollah and their terrorist activities and their threats to Israel. And that is the purported justification for this invasion. So we condemn it.”
Global Affairs Canada posted on X last week that the government “strongly condemns Israel’s plans to occupy territory in southern Lebanon,” while also calling on Hezbollah to disarm and cease its attacks on Israel.
The Canadian government has declared Hezbollah to be a foreign terrorist entity since 2002. The group takes inspiration from the Iranian revolution and is dedicated to Israel’s destruction, according to the listing.
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The war in the Middle East widened when Hezbollah launched missiles toward Israel on March 2, two days after Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran.
Israel immediately retaliated and declared war on Hezbollah, launching waves of airstrikes and sending ground troops across the border.
More than 1.2 million people have been displaced and another 1,200 have been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began. Ten Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon, including four announced Tuesday, and three United Nations peacekeepers were killed earlier this week.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) earlier this month ordered residents to leave swathes of the south, the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, and the group’s political heartlands in eastern Lebanon.
Katz said Tuesday that Israel will destroy all homes in Lebanese villages near the border, and that 600,000 people who fled the south will not be allowed home until northern Israel is secure.
“At the end of the operation, the IDF will establish a security zone inside Lebanon — a line of defense against anti-tank missiles — and will maintain security control over the entire area up to the Litani River, including the remaining Litani bridges,” he said in a statement.
He added the destruction of homes near the Lebanese border will be done “in accordance with the model used in Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza, in order to permanently remove the threats near the border to northern residents.”
Israel on Tuesday launched new strikes targeting what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut.
Lebanon’s minister of social affairs, Haneen Sayed, told Reuters that Israel’s ground operation, which she described as a “land grab,” was deepening the risk that Lebanese would be stuck in long-term displacement.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that Hezbollah had fired almost 5,000 drones, rockets and missiles at Israel during the conflict.
The war is the second major conflict between Israel and Hezbollah since 2024. Israel dealt Hezbollah heavy blows in the last war, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and thousands of its fighters.
—with files from Reuters
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