Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Wednesday condemned what he said was Israel’s “systematic destruction” in the country’s south, calling it a violation of international law, as Defense Minister Israel Katz said its military was “destroying all the houses” there.

Salam said Israeli “attacks, incursions, demolitions and the systematic destruction of homes,” infrastructure, government buildings and places of worship “represent a serious violation of the principles and rules of international law and international humanitarian law.”

Claiming that villages and towns “are entirely ‘military facilities’ does not stand up to any logic and cannot be used as an excuse for destroying them, displacing their inhabitants and preventing them from returning,” he said in a statement.

Katz visited southern Lebanon on Wednesday, vowing to keep troops in the IDF’s buffer zone there and saying the military was “destroying the underground infrastructure” in the area and “destroying all the houses in the area.”

“We are here above and they are below,” Katz said, according to the Defense Ministry. “I have instructed the IDF to take all necessary steps to prepare for a long-term presence in the area.”

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) on Wednesday said Israeli troops carried out detonations in southern villages, including in Zawtar al-Shariqya, which abuts one of the pilot zones.

Lebanon’s army said Israel had blown up “the municipal building in Zawtar al-Shariqya” as well as “a public school, a health clinic, a children’s nursery and a number of homes.”

Hezbollah is heavily entrenched in civilian infrastructure in southern Lebanon. The Iran-backed terror group opposes a framework deal signed in June between Israel and Lebanon that stemmed the conflict in southern Lebanon, and is meant to lead to Hezbollah’s disarmament and an eventual withdrawal of the IDF from the country, as well as a potential peace accord between the nations.

The Lebanese army is meant to take over areas evacuated by Israeli troops. So far, two such zones exist. Rodolphe Haykal, chief of the Lebanese Armed Forces, met on Wednesday with visiting US General Joseph Clearfield, who heads a coordination group involved with the June agreement.

The pair discussed “developments in the south and security arrangements” relating to the deal, the Lebanese military said, as well as “the difficulties the army faces in carrying out its........

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