Israel will leave troops in 5 locations in Lebanon, military spokesperson says

Israel will leave its occupation forces at five strategic locations in southern Lebanon after the expiration of a 18 February deadline for the troops to withdraw, an Israeli military spokesperson said today according to Reuters.

“We need to remain at those points at the moment to defend Israeli citizens, to make sure this process is complete and eventually hand it over to the Lebanese armed forces,” military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told a briefing with reporters, adding that the move was in accordance with the mechanism of the ceasefire agreement.

On Wednesday, for the second time, Israel backed out of its withdrawal deadline, announcing that it would remain in southern Lebanon beyond 18 February.

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The Israeli occupation army was initially expected to complete its withdrawal from the areas it had occupied in southern Lebanon by 26 January, in line with the 60-day deadline set in the ceasefire agreement between Beirut and Tel Aviv, which came into effect on 27 November 2024.

However, Tel Aviv failed to meet the deadline, and Washington later announced that the withdrawal period had been extended until 18 February.

Despite this, the Israeli occupation army reneged on the agreement once again, announcing on Wednesday that it was “extending the implementation period of the agreement.”

Although the army did not announce a new date for the complete withdrawal, Israel’s public broadcaster reported that Tel Aviv had asked the international monitoring committee overseeing the ceasefire agreement to extend its troops’ presence by ten more days, until 28 February—a request that Lebanon rejected.

Since the agreement took effect 82 days ago, Israel has violated it 923 times, resulting in 73 deaths and 265 injuries, according to official Lebanese data cited by Anadolu.

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