Visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein said Israeli forces began withdrawing Monday from a south Lebanon border town more than halfway into a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
It is the second such pullout since a November 27 ceasefire, and came after United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanon’s prime minister late last month had called on the Israeli army to speed up its withdrawal from Lebanon’s south.
“The Israeli military started its withdrawal from Naqura… and back into Israel proper today, south of the Blue Line,” Hochstein told reporters, referring to the UN-demarcated boundary between the two countries.
“These withdrawals will continue until all Israeli forces are out of Lebanon completely, and as the Lebanese army continues to deploy into the south and all the way to the Blue Line,” he added after meeting with parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
Naqura is also the headquarters of the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission.
Israel in September stepped up its bombing campaign and later sent troops into Lebanon following nearly a year of exchanges of cross-border fire initiated by Hezbollah over the war in Gaza.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, the Lebanese army is to deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdraws over a 60-day period.
Hezbollah is to pull its forces north of the Litani River – about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border – and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Sunday accused Hezbollah of not withdrawing “beyond the Litani River” as stipulated, and of not meeting other terms of the ceasefire, after Hezbollah accused Israel of violations.
On his first visit to Lebanon since the truce he helped broker came into effect, Hochstein also urged political consensus in Lebanon ahead of a presidential vote later this week.
Lebanon has been without a president for more than two years amid bitter divisions between Hezbollah and its opponents.
“These are critical times for Lebanon… not just to implement this agreement, but to come to political consensus, to focus on Lebanon for Lebanese people,” he said ahead of the vote on Thursday.
“This is an opportunity… to really just focus on rebuilding the economy,” on implementing “reforms that will allow for investment, and returning the country to economic growth and prosperity for all,” Hochstein added.
