As Israel trades fire with Hezbollah, calls for mass evacuations and sends ground troops deeper into Lebanon, its leaders have hinted at a long-term occupation modeled on the devastating conquest of much of Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Israel says it needs to establish a zone of control in the depopulated south to shield its own northern communities, which have faced daily rocket attacks since the Hezbollah joined the wider war. Many in Lebanon fear that could mean the open-ended displacement of over a million people, the flattening of their homes and a loss of territory.

Kuwait arrested six people linked to Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group who were planning "assassinations" in the Gulf state, the interior ministry said on Wednesday.

Those arrested were planning "assassinations targeting symbols and leaders of the state and recruited people to carry out these missions," the ministry said in a statement.

An Israeli soldier was killed in fighting in south Lebanon on Thursday, the military said, as Israeli troops advanced from the southern border town of Taybeh toward Qantara and Deir al-Seryan near the Litani river.

Hezbollah claimed attacks on troops in the three villages and six others -- Mays al-Jabal, Qawzah, Debl, Khiam, Alma al-Shaab, and Maroun al-Ras.

Israel's political leadership has agreed to move the northern border with Lebanon by approximately eight kilometers into Lebanese territory, Israel's Channel 14 reported on Wednesday.

"It has been agreed to extend Israeli ground control in Lebanon to the outskirts of Tyre and to establish at least 18 Israeli military positions in Lebanon," the report said.

While Washington has signaled a diplomatic off-ramp from its war with Iran, Israel is preparing for the opposite in Lebanon -- an open-ended military campaign against Hezbollah.

Analysts said the message from Israel was a blunt one: Hezbollah must be disarmed, and that will take time.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel's forces were expanding a "buffer zone" in southern Lebanon as the military pressed ahead with its war against Hezbollah.

"We have created a genuine security zone preventing any infiltration toward the Galilee and the northern border," Netanyahu said in a video statement.

Lebanon's government has been wedged into a war not of its choosing between Hezbollah and Israel, as the Iran-backed militants harden their stance and Israel demands the group's elimination.

Beirut has been struggling to pull the country back from the brink after Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2, firing rockets into Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader.

Khalil and his young family are sheltering in a theater in south Lebanon's Tyre, refusing to leave despite Israeli bombardment on the city that is now almost cut off from the rest of the country.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that fighting between Israel and Hezbollah must not condemn Lebanon to the same fate as Gaza, the Palestinian territory decimated by years of conflict.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said Wednesday that negotiating with Israel under fire would amount to "surrender" for Lebanon, and urged the government to reverse its ban on the party's military activities.

"When negotiations with the Israeli enemy are proposed under fire, this is an imposition of surrender," Qassem said, rejecting the Lebanese president's initiative to start direct negotiations "with an enemy that occupies our land and carries out daily attacks".