Eurasia Press & News
Iran-backed terror group has withdrawn north of the Litani River without fight, security official claims, as President Aoun says full deployment hindered by IDF control of 5 posts
The Lebanese army has dismantled “over 90 percent” of Hezbollah’s infrastructure near the border with Israel since a November ceasefire, a security official said Wednesday.
“We have dismantled over 90% of the infrastructure in the area south of the Litani,” the official, who requested anonymity as the matter is sensitive, told AFP.
In accordance with the truce deal brokered between Israel and Lebanon in November, the Lebanese army is required to dismantle all unauthorized military facilities and confiscate all arms, starting in areas south of the Litani River, located some 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the Israeli border.
To that end, the official said much of the Iran-backed terror group’s robust underground infrastructure in the south had been “filled and closed” by the army.
They added that soldiers had also reinforced their control of crossing points into the area south of the Litani “to prevent the transfer of weapons from the north of the river to the south.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, meanwhile, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia that the army was now in control of over 85% of the country’s south.
Aoun, on a visit to the United Arab Emirates, said the Lebanese army was “fulfilling its role without any problems or opposition,” and charged that the single obstacle to the full deployment of soldiers across the border area was “Israel’s occupation of five border positions.”
While Israeli forces withdrew from almost all areas in southern Lebanon following the start of the ceasefire, troops have remained deployed at five key points.
Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed last month that the troops would remain stationed at these locations, deemed strategically important for Israel’s safety, “indefinitely.”
With regard to Hezbollah, which was also required to withdraw from southern Lebanon under the terms of the deal, the security official told AFP that the terror group had been cooperating with the army.
“Hezbollah withdrew and said ‘do whatever you want’… there is no longer a military [infrastructure] for Hezbollah south of the Litani,” the official said.
The official added that most of the munitions found by the army were either “damaged” by Israeli bombing or “in such bad shape that it is impossible to stock them,” prompting the army to detonate them.
The US-brokered ceasefire has largely halted more than a year of hostilities along the Israel-Lebanon border, and some two months of all-out war in southern Lebanon.
Hostilities were initiated by Hezbollah on October 8, 2023, in support of Palestinian ally Hamas, which invaded southern Israel from Gaza a day earlier and committed massacres, killing some 1,200 and abducting 251 to Gaza. Persistent rocket fire from Lebanon displaced some 60,000 Israeli civilians.
