Katz: IDF will stay at 5 points in southern Lebanon regardless of border dispute talks
Defense minister says ‘indefinite’ stay is needed to protect northern residents, tells army to dig in for a long stint; IDF hits Hezbollah target in Beqaa Valley
Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that the Israel Defense Forces would remain deployed at five strategic points in southern Lebanon “indefinitely,” regardless of negotiations over 13 disputed points on the border.
During an assessment the day before with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and other top military officials, Katz “clarified that the IDF will remain at the five points that control the buffer zone in Lebanon, indefinitely, for the sake of protecting the residents of the north, and this is without any connection to future negotiations on points of dispute on the border,” his office said in a statement Friday.
Katz instructed the IDF to fortify its positions at the five strategic points and prepare to stay there for a long period, his office added.
Israel and Lebanon held direct talks earlier in the week to resolve long-running issues about their shared border, and Israel returned five Lebanese prisoners it had arrested in the fighting in what Jerusalem said was a gesture of good will.
Israel has remained at the five points ever since a ceasefire began on November 27, 2024, halting more than a year of hostilities initiated by the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, including two months of full-blown war during which Israel sent in ground troops across the northern border.
While an Israeli official has said the discussions aim to reach normalization of bilateral relations, a Lebanese source quoted by the pro-Iran Al-Mayadeen channel has contended that ties with Israel are not on the table.
The fighting began with attacks by Hezbollah on the Jewish state on October 8, 2023, in support of Palestinian ally Hamas, which invaded southern Israel from Gaza a day earlier. Persistent rocket fire from Lebanon displaced some 60,000 Israeli civilians.
The statement on Katz’s remarks came as the IDF confirmed carrying out an airstrike against a Hezbollah “strategic weapons” manufacturing and storage facility in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley.
“The IDF will continue to work to remove any threat to the State of Israel,” the military said.
The Hezbollah facility has been hit several times by the Israeli Air Force in recent months.
Under the US-mediated ceasefire, Israel was to gradually withdraw from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah would move its forces from the border to be replaced by the Lebanese army. However, Israel has since accused Hezbollah of violating the terms by remaining in the border area and the Lebanese army of not properly deploying.
The IDF has carried out numerous strikes on Hezbollah targets, including some deep into Lebanese territory, a preventive right it says is enshrined in the ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Lebanon named a new head of the armed forces to succeed Joseph Aoun, who was appointed president earlier this year.
“Brigadier General Rodolphe Haykal was named commander in chief of the armed forces,” Minister of Information Paul Morcos said after a cabinet meeting, also confirming several other security appointments.
Haykal, 56, was made the army’s chief of operations last June, having previously served as the commander of the army sector south of the Litani River, according to the army’s website.
That area bore the brunt of the near-daily exchange of fire between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group during more than a year of hostilities that ended with the November 27 ceasefire.
Haykal is expected to play a key role in the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, a security source told AFP, adding that he was Aoun’s favored candidate for the post.
According to Lebanon’s power-sharing system, the army chief must be a Maronite Christian.
Morcos also announced earlier the appointment of the heads of the internal security, general security and state security apparatuses, as well as the approval of the defense ministry’s request to recruit 4,500 soldiers to reinforce troops in the south, where the army is deploying alongside UN peacekeepers as part of the ceasefire agreement.
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