Israeli forces still occupy about a dozen border villages and territories in southern Lebanon [Courtney Bonneau/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty]
The US has reportedly authorised a “long term” Israeli troop presence in southern Lebanon, as an Israeli minister announced on Thursday that Tel Aviv would keep its forces in five strategic positions in the area to “monitor Hezbollah”.
It comes after reports on Wednesday said Israel had asked the US for an extension to an 18 February deadline to withdraw its forces from Lebanon’s south.
Israeli public broadcaster KAN later cited senior officials in Israel’s security cabinet as saying that the US had granted Israeli troops permission to stay “in several locations” in Lebanon beyond 18 February but did not specify a new deadline.
On Thursday, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer told Bloomberg News that Tel Aviv would deploy hundreds of troops to stay in five specific positions, but that a request to keep most troops in south Lebanon had been denied by Washington.
Senior editor at Bloomberg News and its Israel’s bureau chief, Ethan Bronner, said Dermer had “confirmed Israel will redeploy to five spots just inside the Lebanese border by February 18 and stay there till Lebanon implements its treaty obligations”.
“Israel is pushing to hold onto a handful of positions in Lebanon after a request to keep the bulk of its troops in the country beyond next week’s deadline was rejected by the US,” Bronner wrote on X.
Dermer said Lebanon’s obligations as per the ceasefire deal include fully disarming Hezbollah and not just pulling it away from the border.
Under a ceasefire deal brokered by Washington in November, Israeli troops were granted 60 days – until 26 January – to withdraw from southern Lebanon where they had waged a ground offensive against fighters from the Iran-backed Hezbollah group since early October.
It came just two weeks after Israel dramatically escalated its offensive against the armed group after nearly a year of cross-border hostilities in a fallout over the Gaza war.
Within the same 60-day period, as per the agreement, Hezbollah combatants were to leave the zone, and Lebanese troops were to deploy heavily in the area alongside UN peacekeepers.
Hezbollah and other militant factions are to hand their weapons over to the state, which has long been a major point of contention in Lebanon.
The initial 26 January deadline was extended to 18 February after Israel refused to leave.
The US, Israel’s closest military ally, chairs a committee that oversees the implementation of the ceasefire deal. The committee includes military generals from the two countries at war – Lebanon and Israel – as well as France and the UN.
Ortagus expected in Lebanon
Lebanese officials on Wednesday denied media reports that Beirut had agreed to the extension.
In a written statement, Lebanon’s presidency said President Joseph Aoun had “repeatedly stressed Lebanon’s insistence on the complete withdrawal” of Israeli troops by 18 February.
Hezbollah has said it does not accept Israel’s justifications for staying in Lebanon and has urged the Lebanese government to ensure the troops leave. The group, battered by the war, has not explicitly threatened to resume fighting.
US deputy special envoy for the Middle East, Morgan Ortagus, is expected in Lebanon on Sunday, according to reports, where she will discuss Israel’s pullout.
During her first visit to the country last week – where she made controversial remarks about Hezbollah – Ortagus had said Washington was “committed” to the 18 February deadline.
Israel to ‘reposition’ itself in south Lebanon
There was no immediate response to a request for comment sent to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s office, but the head of the Israeli military’s Northern Command said he believed the terms of the deal would be executed.
“I think we will indeed reposition ourselves next week and the agreement will be implemented,” Major General Ori Gordon said on Wednesday, according to Israel’s GLZ radio.
Israel’s military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X on Wednesday that Israeli troops remained in Lebanon after the first extension, and ordered Lebanese citizens not to return to their homes in parts of the country’s south where Israeli forces were still positioned “until further notice”.
Israel still occupies about a dozen villages or territories on the eastern side of southern Lebanon, in a border area adjacent to northern Israel’s Galilee Panhandle. Near-daily demolitions have continued in these villages since the ceasefire, as Israel obliterates what is left of border villages as part of its scorched earth policy.
Villages like Kfarkela and Mays al-Jabal have been nearly completely wiped out.
Israel claims money transfers through airport
Later on Wednesday, Israeli military jets broke the sound barrier over the Lebanese capital for the first time since the ceasefire was agreed.
Many residents across Greater Beirut reported their homes shaking after the sonic boom, as people shared their frustration online.
Swathes of Beirut’s southern suburbs, southern Lebanon and the country’s eastern Beqaa region were laid to waste in Israel’s strikes last year, and the new government is faced with the arduous challenge of reconstruction.
It is doubtful that Hezbollah, whose constituents have been most affected by the war, will meet its promises of compensating and rebuilding all that was destroyed.
As well as having been dealt a heavy blow by Israel militarily, the group is also struggling financially, having its main supply lines through Syria cut off after the former allied regime in Damascus was ousted in December, and coming under tough Western sanctions.
Lebanon’s border crossings, particularly the Beirut airport, have also witnessed tighter security measures, with planes arriving from Iran and Iraq undergoing thorough inspections to check that no money was coming into the country from Hezbollah’s allies abroad.
But this hasn’t stopped Israel from accusing Hezbollah of smuggling cash in through the Beirut airport.
On Wednesday evening, Adraee said Iran’s elite Quds Force and Hezbollah have used international civilian flights arriving at the airport to smuggle funds intended for the militant group.
Despite all attempts to thwart transfers to Hezbollah through the airport and continuous communication with the ceasefire monitoring committee, Israel believes that some of these smuggling attempts have been successful, Adraee wrote in a post on X.
The Israeli army “will not allow Hezbollah to be armed and will act through all means at its disposal to enforce the implementation of the ceasefire agreement understandings in order to ensure the security of the citizens of Israel,” he said.
There have been numerous allegations about Hezbollah receiving funds through the facility, something both the group and Tehran deny. It has raised fears among Lebanese that Israel could use this as a pretext to strike the country’s only civilian airport, spared Israeli attacks in the war.
(Reuters contributed to this report)
