US said to accept IDF request to remain in 5 south Lebanon posts after Feb. 18 deadline
Israel had reportedly asked to stay for an additional 10 days; Lebanese president insists Israel stick to existing date; IDF again warns Lebanese not to return to homes in south
The United States has reportedly authorized a “long-term” Israeli troop presence in southern Lebanon, as Israel is said to be seeking an extension to a February 18 deadline to withdraw its forces.
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 operatives were to leave the zone and Lebanese troops were to deploy in the area within the same period.
The initial deadline was already extended from January 26 until February 18. A Lebanese official and a foreign diplomat in Lebanon told Reuters on Wednesday that Israel has asked to remain in five posts in the south for a further 10 days, until February 28.
The Kan public broadcaster 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 February 18. It did not specify a new deadline.
Kan said that the IDF has begun establishing the five outposts where it would like to remain after receiving approval from Washington.
The request to remain in those five outposts came after the US rejected previous requests for the IDF to extend the deadline, Kan said.
While establishing the new outposts, IDF forces are withdrawing from nearby Shiite villages, including in southeast Lebanon and the Mount Dov area, according to Kan.
The withdrawals come as the Israeli security establishment has identified efforts by Hezbollah to reestablish its intelligence-gathering capabilities in southern Lebanon, the network said.
The US, Israel’s closest military ally, chairs a committee that oversees the implementation of the Lebanon ceasefire.
Later on Wednesday, Israel’s military 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 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, but the head of the Israeli military’s Northern Command said 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,” Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin said during a conference in memorial of those killed in the 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster on Wednesday, according to Army Radio.
The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, said in a post on X 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.” Adraee has published the same message every few days since the extension to the ceasefire began.
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 February 18.
Israeli forces have remained in parts of southern Lebanon, and its air force has continued to carry out strikes across the country on what it says are Hezbollah weapons stores or attempts by the group to smuggle arms.
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.
Separately, Wednesday, the Education Ministry said it would reopen schools and educational facilities for residents of northern Israel who were evacuated amid the conflict with Hezbollah.
The ministry said in a statement that schools will be open from March 2, by a government decision to let residents return from the start of the month.
“Every student who will return to the north will be integrated into an educational framework that is suitable to them,” the ministry said.
Israel asked the Trump administration on Monday for another extension to the February 18 deadline, a US official told The Times of Israel. The response from Washington was that it was planning to stick to the deadline, said the US official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity Tuesday to discuss the matter.
Channel 12 reported similar details, adding that Israel had reiterated to the US its claim that the Lebanese army was not effectively deployed in south Lebanon, as the terms of the ceasefire said it would, and was not preventing Hezbollah from reorganizing. Israel has warned that Hezbollah aims to return to the border area as soon as IDF troops depart.
US deputy Mideast envoy Morgan Ortagus traveled to Lebanon and then Israel over the weekend to survey the progress of the US-mediated ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that ended the war that spiraled from border attacks by the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group. Ortagus told reporters that the Trump administration views February 18 as a “firm date” for the completion of Israel’s withdrawal.
Israel’s military says its forces have continued to uncover and seize Hezbollah weapons in prohibited areas and that the Lebanese army is not keeping its part of the deal.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel is entitled to act against immediate threats posed by Hezbollah but must forward complaints about longer-term threats to an oversight committee composed of representatives from the US, France, Lebanon, and the international observer force UNIFIL.
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. Tens of thousands of Israeli residents of the north were displaced by the 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.
Israel insists that Hezbollah be kept away from the boundary between the two countries to make the region safe for its northern border residents.
Like their patron, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah avowedly seek the destruction of Israel.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
