Israel will ensure that tens of thousands of residents evacuated from northern border areas will be able to go back home, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, amid mounting tensions with the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.

In a brief video statement, Netanyahu made no mention of the operation that remotely detonated thousands of pagers and hand-held radio devices used by operatives of Hezbollah, which has blamed the attack on Israel.

"We will return the residents of the north securely to their homes," he said in a brief video statement, giving no further details.