WASHINGTON, May 5. /TASS/. The Israeli army's actions to create a security buffer zone in southern Lebanon are pointless and inefficient, as they fail to eliminate the threat of rocket attacks by the Shiite Hezbollah group and harm local residents, Israel's former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who led the country's government from 2006 to 2009, said in an interview with the American portal Al-Monitor.
"The real threat facing Israelis in the north is not short-range fire, but missiles with a range of over 50 kilometers [31 miles]. The buffer zone established by the Israeli military along the border, including the extensive damage caused to Lebanese villages there, is meaningless and inefficient in that sense. Thwarting missile fire from beyond the Litani River, disarming Hezbollah and damaging its bases in central and northern Lebanon can only be achieved through cooperation with the Lebanese government and joint action by both armies, assisted by an international force," Olmert noted.
The Lebanese government failed to implement the November 2024 ceasefire deal regarding the disarmament of Hezbollah, he added. In his view, this was due to the weakness of Lebanon’s central authority. Nevertheless, at the current stage, Israel, together with the United States and France, should seek to strengthen Lebanon's official authorities and build strong security contacts.
Israel conducted a military operation against Hezbollah from March 2, when the Iran-backed Shiite group began striking Israeli territory in response to the killing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Israeli Air Force attacked targets across Lebanon for more than a month, while ground forces advanced in the country's south. These actions were described by the Israeli side as strengthening "forward defensive positions." The stated goal was to create a buffer zone south of the Litani River in southern Lebanon to protect northern Israeli communities from rocket fire.
On April 16, US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to a ceasefire. According to him, he held phone calls with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and both agreed that a 10-day ceasefire would formally begin at 5 p.m. EST (9 p.m. GMT) on April 17. On April 17, the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon came into force. On April 24, Trump announced its extension for three weeks, while indicating the possibility of a meeting in Washington under his mediation between President Aoun and Prime Minister Netanyahu.