Israel warns Lebanese against returning to border area Via Reuters

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Israeli army on Saturday warned residents of several Lebanese villages near the border against returning until further notice, a day after Israel said its forces would remain south of Lebanon more than Sunday’s departure time.

The US ceasefire deal that ended last year’s war between Hezbollah and Israel said that Israeli forces should withdraw while the Iran-backed group’s weapons and fighters are withdrawn from the south and the Lebanese army. The agreement established a 60-day period that will expire on Sunday.

But Israel said on Friday that the terms have not been fully confirmed by the Lebanese state, which means that Israeli forces will stay until Sunday, without saying how long.

The US-backed Lebanese army on Saturday accused Israel of delaying the withdrawal.

In a statement on social media platform X, the Israeli army posted a map showing the southern area with many villages and reminded residents that until further notice they are prohibited from returning to their homes.

“Anyone who travels south of this border is putting themselves at risk,” the statement said. The border runs from Shebaa, less than 2 kilometers (1.5 miles) from the border in the east, to Mansouri in the west – about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border.

The ceasefire ended more than a year of fighting in Gaza and culminated in a major Israeli offensive against Hezbollah, which uprooted more than a million people from Lebanon and left the group severely weakened.

The Israeli army says it has been seizing Hezbollah weapons and demolishing its facilities in the south.

The White House said on Friday that a short-term extension of the ceasefire was urgently needed.

Hezbollah, which has suffered major casualties in the war, said on Thursday that any delay in Israel’s withdrawal would be an unacceptable violation of the agreement and placed the responsibility on the Lebanese state to take action. Hezbollah said that the Lebanese state will have to deal with such a violation “with all the means and methods guaranteed by international law”.

Israel has said that its campaign against Hezbollah is aimed at protecting the tens of thousands of people forced by Hezbollah rocket fire to leave their homes in northern Israel.

The Lebanese army, in a statement issued on Saturday, urged Lebanese citizens to wait before entering the border area, citing the presence of mines and Israel’s unexploded ordinance.

The army said it has continued to implement a plan to strengthen its deployment south of the Litani river since the ceasefire.

“Delays occurred at several levels due to the delayed withdrawal of the Israeli enemy, which complicated the military mission,” the statement said. The army “is always ready to complete its deployment once the enemy of Israel withdraws”.