Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News that some Christian villages in southern Lebanon had allegedly appealed to Israel to annex them for protection from Hezbollah.

"Christian villages in Lebanon, some of them actually asked to be annexed to Israel because we are protecting them from Hezbollah, the Hezbollah fanatics who want to kill them. And we are doing the same thing with Christians everywhere," he said.

Netanyahu’s statement came amid continuing tensions on the Israeli-Lebanese border and regular exchanges of strikes between Israel and Hezbollah.