The withdrawal of the Israeli army of the south of Lebanon will last more than 60 days agreed in a high fire agreement, says the office of Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu, stating that the agreement has not yet been fully applied by Lebanon.
Friday’s statement occurred after the Israeli army attacked cities in the border region of the southern Lebanon just two days before it is supposed to remove the troops under the high fire with Hezbollah.
The National News Agency (NNA) of Lebanon reported Friday that the Israeli forces razed the south, sweeping and burning houses in the city of Aitaroun, damaging a mosque in the city of Qantara and causing an explosion in Rabelathin.
The raids occurred in the midst of reports from the Israeli media on the early Friday that the Netanyahu government was looking for ways to keep soldiers in Lebanon beyond the stipulated period in the high fire.
According to the terms of the truce, the Lebanese army will be deployed together with the United Nations Peace Forces in the South while the Israeli army retires for a period of 60 days.
Hezbollah will withdraw its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and will dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
“There have been positive movements in which the Lebanese army and the FPNUL have taken the place of Hezbollah’s forces, as stipulated in the agreement,” the Israeli government spokesman, David Mence, told reporters, referring to the force of United Nations Peace in Lebanon.
“We have also made it clear that these movements have not been fast enough and that there is much more work to do,” he said, stating that Israel wanted the agreement to continue.
Hezbollah said in a statement that any breach of the agreement would be unacceptable and asked the sponsors of the agreement to exercise pressure to guarantee the implementation of the “total withdrawal (Israeli) and the deployment of the Lebanese army until the last centimeter of the Lebanese territory.” and the rapid return of people to their villages. ”
The agreement, negotiated by the United States and France in November, ended more than a year of fighting triggered by the Israel War against Gaza.
The fighting reached their maximum point with a great Israeli offensive that killed thousands of people in Lebanon, displaced more than 1.2 million in the country and left Hezbollah seriously weakened.
The Israeli newspaper Yedoth Ahronoth reported Friday that Israel was asking the new administration of US President Donald Trump to extend the deadline, claiming that the Lebanese army had been displayed too slowly to the south and had allowed Hezbollah to regroup.
The leader of the National Unit Party, Benny Gantz, former Minister of Defense who resigned from the country’s war cabinet last year, was summoned in the report saying that the army should continue “intensifying operations against any violation by Hezbollah, whether less or serious.”
A UN source told Al Jazeera that, although the Israeli forces had retired from much of the western and central areas of the southern Lebanon, the field data suggested that they were preparing to retain points in the east.
The UN Peace Force has reported repeated Israeli violations of the Terms of Alto El Fuego.
David Wood, the main analyst of International Crisis Group for Lebanon, told Al Jazeera that Israel’s delay runs the risk of undermining the high fire agreement and said that the Lebanese army does not have many options, especially while Israeli troops remain inside its borders.
“But I also think there is a symbolic aspect in this,” he said, speaking from Beirut.
“As long of Hezbollah and his armed resistance. ”
The delay in Israeli withdrawal occurs when Lebanese residents returned to their villages in the south to find them devastated.
The Lebanese army asked the residents of the coastal city of Naqoura not to return to their homes for their own security, given the trail of destruction left by the Israeli forces that left.
“Naqura has become a city of disaster. … here there are no basic needs of life, ”said Mayor Abbas Awada, who had returned to inspect the state of his city.
The mayor said that Naqouura needed “at least three years” to rebuild and worried that the lack of funds, after years of economic crisis, hindered reconstruction.
