Israel ‘has US backing’ to stay in Lebanon beyond truce deadline

Israel’s public broadcaster said on Wednesday that the US had authorised a “long term” Israeli troop presence in southern Lebanon, after sources told Reuters that the occupation state had sought an extension to the 18 February deadline to withdraw its forces, the agency said on Wednesday.

Under a truce deal brokered by Washington in November, Israeli troops were granted 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon where they had waged a ground offensive against fighters from Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah since early October. Hezbollah combatants were to leave the zone and Lebanese troops were to deploy in the area within the same period.

The initial deadline has already been extended from 26 January until 18 February. A Lebanese official and a foreign diplomat in Lebanon told Reuters on Wednesday that Israel had now asked to remain in five posts in the south for a further 10 days.

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. It did not specify a new deadline.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.

The US is Israel’s closest military ally, and chairs a committee that oversees the implementation of the Lebanon ceasefire.

Also on Wednesday, Israeli Air Force jets broke the sound barrier over the Lebanese capital Beirut for the first time since the ceasefire was agreed.

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 that 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 social media on Wednesday that Israeli troops remained in Lebanon after the first extension, and ordered Lebanese citizens not to return to their homes in the country’s south “until further notice”.

In a written statement, Lebanon’s presidency denied reports that Beirut had agreed to a second extension and said President Joseph Aoun had “repeatedly stressed Lebanon’s insistence on the complete withdrawal” of Israeli troops by 18 February.

READ: Israeli forces burn houses in southern Lebanon amid ceasefire violations