BEIRUT/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Saturday warned residents of dozens of Lebanese villages near the border against returning until further notice, a day after Israel said its forces would remain in south Lebanon beyond a Sunday deadline for their departure.
A U.S.-brokered ceasefire that ended last year’s war between Hezbollah and Israel stipulated that Israeli forces should withdraw as the Iran-backed group’s weapons and fighters are removed from the south and the Lebanese army deploys. The deal set a 60-day period which ends on Sunday.
But Israel said on Friday the terms had not been fully enforced by the Lebanese state, meaning Israeli troops would stay beyond Sunday, without saying for how long.
Lebanon military on Saturday accused Israel of procrastinating in its withdrawal.
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In a statement on social media platform X, the Israeli military posted a map showing an area of the south containing dozens of villages and reminding residents that until further notice they are forbidden from returning to their homes.
“Anyone who moves south of this line puts themselves in danger,” the statement said. The line stretches from Shebaa, less than 2 km (1.5 miles) from the border in the east, to Mansouri in the west - about 10 km (6 miles) from the border.
The ceasefire ended more than a year of hostilities which were triggered by the Gaza war and peaked in a major Israeli offensive against Hezbollah, which uprooted more than a million people in Lebanon and left the group badly weakened.
The Israeli military says it has been seizing Hezbollah weapons and dismantling its infrastructure in the south.
The White House said on Friday that a short, temporary ceasefire extension was urgently needed.
Hezbollah, which suffered major blows in the war, said on Thursday that any delay of Israel’s withdrawal would be an unacceptable breach of the deal and put the onus on the Lebanese state to act. Hezbollah said the Lebanese state would have to deal with such a violation “through all means and methods guaranteed by international charters”.
Israel said its campaign against Hezbollah aimed to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people forced by Hezbollah rocket fire to leave their homes in northern Israel.
The Lebanese army, in a statement issued on Saturday, urged Lebanese residents to wait before heading into the border region, citing the presence of mines and unexploded Israeli ordnance.
The army said it had continued to implement the plan to strengthen its deployment south of the Litani River since the ceasefire came into effect.
“Delays occurred in a number of the phases as a result of procrastination in the withdrawal by the Israeli enemy, which complicated the mission of the army’s deployment,” the statement said. The army “maintains its readiness to complete its deployment as soon as the Israeli enemy withdraws”.
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