Israeli forces ‘to stay in five locations in Lebanon after withdrawal deadline’
Lebanon’s government has opposed any further delays in the pull-out.
Israel’s military has said its forces will remain in five strategic locations in southern Lebanon after Tuesday’s deadline for their withdrawal under a ceasefire with the Hezbollah militant group, as Lebanon’s government expressed frustration over another delay.
A separate ceasefire in Gaza is also in doubt as the region marks 500 days of Israel’s war with Hamas, while Israel and the US send conflicting signals over whether they want the truce to continue. Talks on the ceasefire’s second phase are yet to start.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said the five locations in Lebanon provide vantage points or are located across from communities in northern Israel, where about 60,000 Israelis are still displaced.
He said the “temporary measure” was approved by the US-led body monitoring the truce, which was earlier extended by three weeks.
Under the agreement, Israeli forces should withdraw from a buffer zone in southern Lebanon that would be patrolled by the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers. The ceasefire has held since taking effect in November.
Israel is committed to a withdrawal in “the right way, in a gradual way, and in a way that the security of our civilians is kept”, Lt Col Shoshani told reporters.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told reporters the ceasefire “must be respected”, saying “the Israeli enemy cannot be trusted”.
He added that Lebanese officials were working diplomatically to achieve the Israeli withdrawal, “and I will not accept that a single Israeli remains on Lebanese territory”.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there.
The Israel-Hezbollah conflict boiled over into all-out war in September as Israel carried out massive waves of air strikes and killed most of the militant group’s senior leaders.
Earlier on Monday, an Israeli drone targeted a car in Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon, the deepest strike inside Lebanese territory since the ceasefire took effect.
The Israeli military said the strike killed Mohammad Shaheen, the head of Hamas’s operations department in Lebanon. The army accused him of “recently planning terror attacks, directed and funded by Iran, from Lebanese territory against the citizens of the state of Israel”.
Hamas confirmed Mr Shaheen’s death but described him as a military commander.
