TEL AVIV, March 19. /TASS/. Israel is interested in building peaceful relations with Lebanon and views Shia organization Hezbollah as the main obstacle to peace, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a phone conversation with his French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot.

"Israel has an interest in Lebanon joining the circle of normalization and peace in the region. The obstacle to this is Hezbollah. The Lebanese government must take meaningful action against Hezbollah on all fronts: weapons, sources of funding and financial infrastructure, legal measures against its leadership, its social and educational infrastructure, economic benefits (licenses), and more," Saar wrote on the X social network.

The minister added that his country is committed to "defending itself" from shelling attacks coming from Lebanon’s territory and carried out by Hezbollah groups. In his opinion, the movement "has taken over Lebanon" and is acting according to Iran’s interests.

Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron said the Lebanese authorities were ready for direct negotiations with Israel, which is conducting a military operation in southern regions of the country, and offered to host the talks.

Overnight into March 2, the north of Israel came under a shelling attack from Lebanese territory. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that it had launched rockets on Israeli territory in response to the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Following Hezbollah’s rocket attack, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) began to deliver massive air strikes on Lebanese territory. Later, Chief of the Israeli General Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir announced an "offensive campaign" against the Shia group Hezbollah that he said could be days-long.

On March 9, the IDF began "a targeted and limited raid" in southern Lebanon to dismantle Hezbollah’s infrastructure. On March 16, the IDF said. On March 16, the IDF announced that it had begun limited ground operations in Lebanon’s southern regions against key Hezbollah fortifications in southern Lebanon.