The ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah terrorist army is set to conclude on Sunday (Jan. 26), at which time Israel was supposed to leave southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah has violated the terms of the agreement since day one, and the Lebanese Armed Forces are also breaching the deal by not enforcing it.
According to the ceasefire terms, Hezbollah had 60 days to remove its arms and its terrorist forces from southern Lebanon – where they pose an existential threat to Israelis across the border – and move themselves north of the Litani River.
It’s the same deal that was signed between Israel and Beirut to end the Second Lebanon War in 2006, enshrined in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701. From Day One, the 2006 ceasefire agreement was blatantly ignored.
Not this time.
“The ceasefire framework in Lebanon determined that the gradual withdrawal of the IDF from Lebanon should be implemented within 60 days. This article is based on the understanding that the withdrawal process could possibly continue beyond the 60 days,” the Prime Minister’s Office said Friday in a statement.
“The withdrawal process of the IDF is conditioned on the Lebanese army deploying in southern Lebanon and fully and effectively enforcing the agreement while Hezbollah withdraws beyond the Litani.
“Since the ceasefire agreement has yet to be fully enforced by the Lebanese state, the gradual withdrawal process will continue, in full coordination with the US,” the PMO said.
“The State of Israel will not endanger its communities and its citizens and will insist on the complete implementation of the war objective in Lebanon – the return of the Israeli residents safely to their homes on the north.”
In the past week alone, Israel Defense Forces have dismantled multiple weapons storage facilities and active Hezbollah observation posts, all of them in southern Lebanon.
In the Saluki area, 769th Brigade troops under the command of the 91st Division located multiple subterranean Hezbollah terrorist tunnels.
Combat engineering and Yahalom Unit soldiers investigated the routes before dismantling them.
The troops also located a weapons cache inside a mosque, a vehicle loaded with weapons, hundreds of mortar shells, explosives, rockets, weapons, and additional Hezbollah military equipment.
Golani Brigade soldiers located trucks carrying heavy rocket launchers, along with several weapons storage facilities containing many rockets, shoulder-fired missiles, launchers, mortar shells, explosives, and military equipment.
All the weapons were confiscated, and the arms storage facilities were dismantled.
Troops of the 300th Brigade, under the command of the 146th Division, worked to remove Hezbollah threats in the southern Lebanese village of Ayta ash Shab, where the terrorists stored weapons and from which they fired hundreds of rockets and anti-tank missiles into Israel.
More than 30 weapons storage facilities and caches were found in an around the village, containing rocket launchers, crates of munitions, missiles and launchers, explosives, RPG launchers, AK-47 rifles, hundreds of rockets and mortars, grenades, Kornet missiles, and sniper rifles.
The weapons were located inside residential buildings, courtyards, kindergartens, and basements.
All were either confiscated or dismantled.
The troops of the 7th Brigade, under the command of the 91st Division located numerous weapons, including Kornet missiles, grenades, and AK-47 rifles during its operations in southern Lebanon, all of which were confiscated or dismantled.
According to 7th Division Battalion Commander LTC T:
The troops worked together with the Yahalom combat engineering unit to locate and dismantle several underground routes used by Hezbollah terrorists as shelters and weapon storage facilities. All the weapons were confiscated or dismantled.
“The IDF remains deployed in southern Lebanon, continues to monitor Hezbollah’s attempts to return to southern Lebanon, and will operate against any threat posed to IDF troops and the State of Israel,” the IDF emphasized.
