TEL AVIV, February 27. /TASS/. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are "staying indefinitely" in the buffer zone on the border with Lebanon, Defense Minister Israel Katz said.
"There is a buffer zone (on the border with Lebanon). It wasn't easy but I stood my ground, and we received a green light from the United States. We gave them a map, and we are staying indefinitely - this is situation-dependent, not time-dependent," his office quoted Katz as saying at a conference of local authority heads in Israel.
On February 17, the Ynet news outlet reported that the IDF would withdraw from southern Lebanon as part of the ceasefire deal, but would remain in five strategic positions. According to Kan radio, the Israeli army will remain in these five positions to prevent Hezbollah units from resuming their activities in southern Lebanon.
The ceasefire deal, reached on November 27, 2024 as a result of US-French mediation, called for the deployment of the Lebanese army along the entire southern border, backed by UN peacekeepers, and the withdrawal of Hezbollah units across the Litani River. Israel was to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon, where it was conducting a ground operation, within 60 days. On January 27, the White House announced that an agreement had been reached to extend the terms of the withdrawal of Israeli units from Lebanese territory until February 18.