Israeli settler group creates video calling for settlements in south Lebanon

An extremist Israeli settler group known as The South Lebanon Settlement Movement has created a video calling for building Jewish settlements in south Lebanon. The movement was first established on 10 April, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which flared up in response to Israel launching its brutal military aggression on the Gaza Strip in October. The South Lebanon Settlement Movement, said to be small in numbers, follows the return of fervency amongst the settler movement seeking to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, which is backed by far-right and hardline MP settlers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. The video comes as the group announced it would host a meeting next week to further talks on creating Jewish settlements in southern Lebanon, where tens of thousands of residents have been evacuated from their homes due to the ongoing cross-border violence. Not counting annexed east Jerusalem, more than 490,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank in settlements considered illegal under international law, alongside some three million Palestinians. The expansion of the settlements has gathered pace under successive governments since Israel's capture of the West Bank in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and has accelerated sharply under the pro-settlement administrations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.