IDF to remain in five strategic posts in south Lebanon after Tuesday withdrawal
Positions are located on hills outside Lebanese frontier villages; army also beefs up defenses on Israeli side of border as pullout deadline arrives
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces on Monday confirmed troops will remain deployed in five strategic positions in southern Lebanon after Tuesday’s deadline for their withdrawal.
Under a ceasefire deal brokered by the United States 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 Hezbollah terror group since early October.
Hezbollah operatives were to leave the zone and Lebanese troops were to deploy in the area within the same period. The original deadline had already been extended from January 26 until February 18.
Last week, the US authorized the IDF to remain in the five points, though it was not clear how long troops would stay there.
The military said it was prepared to stay at the posts for a lengthy period, until Hezbollah fully withdraws beyond the Litani River and the Israeli political leadership instructs it to leave.
At the five positions, the IDF constructed military posts that would be manned by troops.
The posts are located at a hill near Labbouneh, across from the the Israeli border town of Shlomi; the Jabal Blat peak, across from Zar’it; a hill across from Avivim and Malkia; a hill across from Margaliot; and a hill across from Metula.
None of the posts are located within built-up areas of Lebanon. The IDF will withdraw from all Lebanese border villages and towns by Tuesday.
The IDF also ramped up its defenses on the Israeli side of the border, with several new posts, one in front of every Israeli border community; better surveillance capabilities, including more cameras, radars, and sensors; and triple the number of troops compared to before the war.
The military said it expects Hezbollah supporters to stage protests as residents of the south Lebanon border villages return to their homes, many of which were destroyed amid the fighting. Troops by then will not be located in any of the towns, so there should be no direct friction, according to the IDF.
The IDF, however, said it would prevent suspects from approaching the Israeli border and the newly established army posts at the five strategic positions.
Over the last few days, the IDF said it carried out “intensive activity” in southern Lebanon, removing any last threats it could find, from caches of Hezbollah weapons to tunnel infrastructure. The troops operated in areas up to eight kilometers inside Lebanon.
A Hezbollah tunnel on the Lebanese side of Mount Dov that was destroyed by the IDF, in a video published February 17, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF said that the area close to the Israeli border was essentially entirely cleared of Hezbollah infrastructure and weapons, after troops in the past months scanned nearly every home, under every tree, and in every valley.
Meanwhile, the IDF said it will continue to enforce the ceasefire agreement after the withdrawal by striking immediate Hezbollah threats and reporting violations to a US-led committee supervising the ceasefire composed of representatives from the US, France, Lebanon, and the international observer force UNIFIL.
The military said it hoped to see the Lebanese Armed Forces act more against Hezbollah, saying so far their operations against the terror group have been slower than expected. Still, in recent days, the IDF said it has seen an improvement in the Lebanese army’s actions against Hezbollah.
If the Lebanese army fails to act, the IDF vowed to do so, as it has during the ceasefire, while coordinating with the US and the ceasefire supervision mechanism it leads.
Should the ceasefire continue to hold after the IDF withdrawal, tens of thousands of displaced residents of northern Israel will begin to return to their homes on March 2.
Hezbollah has said it does not accept Israel’s justifications for staying in Lebanon and has urged Lebanon’s government to ensure the troops leave. The group has not explicitly threatened to resume fighting.
The November 27 deal ended two months of full-scale war that followed months of lower-intensity exchanges.
Hezbollah began near-daily attacks on northern Israel one day after the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by its Palestinian ally Hamas, which triggered the war in Gaza. Some 60,000 Israeli residents of the north were displaced by Hezbollah’s attacks, with rocket fire eventually spreading to the center of the country.
Israel intensified its campaign against Hezbollah in September, launching a series of devastating blows against the group’s leadership and killing its longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah before launching a ground invasion in southern Lebanon aimed at securing the border and enabling the return of displaced Israelis.
Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel since October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 46 civilians. In addition, 80 IDF soldiers and reservists died in cross-border skirmishes, attacks on Israel, and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
The IDF estimated that some 3,500 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
