Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu told the American network Fox News today that certain Christian villages in southern Lebanon “have asked to be annexed” to Israel, seeking, according to him, protection from the pro-Iranian Hezbollah.

Among the “Christian villages in Lebanon, some have even asked to be annexed to Israel, because we protect them from the Hezbollah fanatics who want to wipe them out. And we do the same thing for Christians everywhere,” Netanyahu said on the show “The Sunday Briefing.”

Israel occupies a section of southern Lebanon near the border.