Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a visiting US envoy on Monday that a "fundamental change" was needed after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Netanyahu told US envoy Amos Hochstein that displaced residents of the border area would not be able to return home "without a fundamental change in the security situation in the north", and that Israel "will do what is necessary to ensure its security", the prime minister's office said in a statement.

Netanyahu “also said that Israel appreciates and respects the support of the United States, but in the end will do what is necessary to maintain its security and to return the residents of the north to their homes safely."