A senior Israeli security official told AFP that the Israeli army is ready to withdraw from south Lebanon and transfer areas to the Lebanese army within the original cease-fire agreement.
However, conflicting reports state that Israel will not withdraw from five points in south Lebanon and will remain “to guarantee the safety of citizens in the north.”
US General Jeffers, head of the ceasefire implementation committee, also stated that “we have made great progress and the Lebanese army will certainly control all population centers south of the Litani by Tuesday.”
On Wednesday, Israel unilaterally announced a 10-day extension of the deadline for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, which was set on February 18.
The Lebanese state reportedly refused the unilateral announcement, and reports suggest that newly elected president Joseph Aoun has called on European states to pressure Israel to withdraw by the original deadline.
Israeli Army Spokesperson Statements
Israeli Army Spokesperson for the Arab Media, Avichay Adraee, resumed his forced displacement orders on X. On Wednesday, he announced that the withdrawal period has been extended and that Israeli forces are still spread on the ground in southern Lebanon.
He warned residents of the South not to move southward or go back to their houses in affected areas until further notice.
Around midnight, Adraee also claimed that the Iranian Quds Force and Hezbollah have been exploiting commercial flights at the Beirut airport to smuggle funds allocated to arm Hezbollah with the aim of carrying out attacks against Israel.
It is not the first time that Israeli spokespersons have claimed that the Beirut airport is being used for war-related purposes.
During the escalations in conflict last year, they also claimed that the airport was storing Hezbollah equipment, which prompted a wave of panic and led the caretaker Ministry of Works back then to conduct an open site visit for international media to verify that these claims were false.
Fake Raid
On Wednesday evening also, Israeli warplanes conducted a fake air raid which caused a loud sonic boom across Beirut. The raid could be interpreted as a warning sign for Lebanon not to interfere with Israel’s plans to stay longer on Lebanese soil.
Since the onset of the conditional ceasefire agreement, Israeli drones have also been heard hovering around Beirut and other areas across Lebanon as Israeli forces diversify their means of violating Lebanese sovereignty.
Moreover, violations of the agreement have continued in deadly fashion. Israeli forces killed at least 83 individuals and injured at least 228 others since the beginning of the agreement, according to the then caretaker Ministry of Public Health.
On January 26, Israeli forces killed 23 citizens and one Lebanese soldier, including six women, and injured 134 individuals, including 14 women and 12 children. People were attempting to return to their villages after more than several months of Israeli control of southern areas and the passing of the initial two-months deadline for total Israeli withdrawal.
Regardless of whether Israel has received US approval for the decision to postpone the withdrawal deadline, the current lack of action on the part of the international community and Lebanon’s unwillingness to enter another round of escalation would likely mean that Israel would once again violate basic human rights and sovereignty principles unabated.