Photo by
Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS-IL on 18 February, 2025
Israeli Army Withdraws From Southern Lebanon, Remains in Five Outposts
Jerusalem, 18 February, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon, except for five outposts as Lebanese forces deployed in various villages on Tuesday.
“Starting today, the IDF will remain in the buffer zone in Lebanon in five controlled outposts and will continue to enforce forcefully and without compromise against any violation by Hezbollah,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said. “We are determined to provide full security to all northern communities.”
Katz added that army posts on the Israeli side of the border would be reinforced.
The Lebanese Armed Forces said soldiers deployed various villages and locations along the border vacated by the IDF.
Also on Tuesday, residents of seven Israeli regional councils began casting their votes in local elections delayed by the war. The rest of the country voted in February in balloting originally scheduled for October.
If the ceasefire holds, thousands of residents will begin returning to their homes on March 2.
After the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, Hezbollah began launching rockets and launching drones at northern Israel communities daily. More than 68,000 residents of northern Israel were displaced from their homes.
Under the terms of a two-month ceasefire that went into effect on November 27 and has since been extended, Hezbollah is supposed to withdraw its armed presence from areas of southern Lebanon south of the Litani River.
However, Jerusalem was dissatisfied with the Lebanese deployment. The US agreed to delay the withdrawal to Feb. 18, but refused to delay it further.
The “Blue Line” demarcating the 120 km-long Israeli-Lebanese border was created in 2000 by UN cartographers to verify Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, which the UN Security Council later certified as complete. The border runs from Rosh HaNikra on the Mediterranean coast to Mount Dov, where the Israeli-Lebanese border converges with Syria.
