Army begins pulling back some troops from northern border

The Israel Defense Forces has started scaling back reinforcements along the Lebanese border and removing roadblocks from the area following a “situational assessment,” the military says.

The additional troops and weaponry had been deployed along the border out of concern for an attack by the Hezbollah terror group, which has threatened revenge for the death of one of its fighters in an airstrike in Syria that was widely attributed to Israel.

“In accordance with the continuous situational assessment taking place in the IDF, some of the restrictions on military vehicles have been removed and a number of roadblocks have been opened in the area of the northern border,” the IDF says in a statement.

“In addition, pinpoint scale-backs of reinforcement troops in the area have begun,” the military says.

Despite the decrease in reinforcements, the remaining troops in the area remain at high alert.

Throughout the past two and a half weeks in which the army has been on high alert, no restrictions have been put in place on civilians in the area, as the IDF assessed that a Hezbollah attack would be directed against a military target only.

— Judah Ari Gross