TEL AVIV, July 28. /TASS/. Israel has destroyed 24 villages in southern Lebanon, which had been used by Hezbollah as their strongholds, and now controls an area of around 700 square kilometers, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told C14 TV hours ahead of Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington.

"These villages have been totally ruined. Some 15,000-20,000 houses. All the 24 villages have been destroyed, including Bint Jbeil, which is located further, but it has also been destroyed. We control 700 square kilometers in southern Lebanon, from the coast to Mount Hermon. We are preventing attacks on Israeli settlements and direct anti-tank fire at them," he said.

According to the Israeli defense minister, the Israel Defense Forces "continues dismantling tunnels" of radicals in southern Lebanon. "We have said that we will not withdraw from there," he said. "Neither Netanyahu nor I, as the defense minister, are going to cede our positions and withdraw from the three security zones in Syria, the Gaza Strip, and Lebanon," he said, adding that Trump "understands this."

According to Israel’s 13th TV channel, Netanyahu informed his cabinet members on July 27 that although the United States insists on the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Syria he would not agree on this. Washington gave to understand that it is interested in the withdrawal of Israeli troops from these areas, the TV channel added.