JERUSALEM: Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed on Tuesday (Feb 18) that troops remain at five positions in southern Lebanon past a pullout deadline, vowing action against any truce violation by militant group Hezbollah.
The Israeli military “will remain in a buffer zone in Lebanon with five control positions, and will continue to act forcefully and uncompromisingly against any Hezbollah violation,” said Katz in a statement shortly after an extended deadline expired for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon under the Nov 27 truce deal.
Israel had announced hours before the pullout deadline that it would keep troops in “five strategic points” near the border.
A Lebanese security source earlier confirmed to AFP that “the Israeli army has withdrawn from all border villages except for five points.”
The ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group has been in effect since late November, following more than a year of hostilities, including two months of all-out war in which Israel launched ground operations.
Katz said the decision to remain inside Lebanese territory was made “in accordance with the decision of the political echelon … to ensure the protection of all Israeli communities and deterrence against threats from Lebanon”.
The minister also said that forces had been reinforced on the Israeli side of the border.
“Hezbollah must fully withdraw beyond the Litani River, and the Lebanese army must enforce and disarm it under the supervision of the mechanism established by the United States,” Katz said, referring to the terms of the ceasefire deal.
“We are determined to provide full security to all communities in the north,” he added.
Under the ceasefire, brokered by Washington and Paris, Lebanon’s military was to deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period that was extended to Feb 18.
Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30km from the border, and dismantle remaining military infrastructure there.
Jonathan Conricus, a senior fellow at US think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Israeli military spokesman, told AFP that troops would “remain deployed in key locations overlooking Israeli communities” from the Lebanese side.
“When the Lebanese Armed Forces will be fully deployed in all of southern Lebanon, the IDF (army) will likely complete its withdrawal from Lebanon, as long as Hezbollah continues to adhere to the agreement,” he said.
