A top U.S. envoy who helped broker the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah issued reassurance on Monday that Israel would withdraw fully from southern Lebanon, as called for in the fragile 60-day truce deal that paused the bloodiest war between the two sides in decades.
Speaking to reporters in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, the envoy, Amos Hochstein, said that Israeli troops had pulled out on Monday from the southern town of Naqoura. In a statement, the Lebanese military said it had redeployed in the town, after the Israeli withdrawal.
“These withdrawals will continue until Israeli forces are fully out of Lebanon,” Mr. Hochstein said after meeting with senior Lebanese officials. “There’s been much progress in recent days, and I expect to see additional progress being made in the days to come.”
Although the truce reached in late November continues to hold, there is growing frustration among Lebanese and Israeli officials about the pace at which the cease-fire agreement is being carried out, with the deadline fast approaching for the terms to be fulfilled.
Mr. Hochstein did not specify when Israeli troops would withdraw completely from Lebanon, and it remains uncertain whether the cease-fire agreement will be fully in place by the end of the 60-day period.
The deal ended a 14-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, a powerful militant group in Lebanon that began firing rockets into Israel in support of the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran, part of its network of regional proxies.
After Israel went on the offensive against Hezbollah in September last year, the violence killed nearly 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced over a million others. The fighting has also seriously weakened Hezbollah, with much of its leadership wiped out.
Under the terms of the cease-fire, Israeli troops have until Jan. 26 to pull out of Lebanon. Hezbollah militants are required in tandem to withdraw to north of the Litani River in southern Lebanon, and the Lebanese military is expected to deploy in force along the border.
So far, however, the Israeli military has withdrawn from just three of the dozens of areas in southern Lebanon where it continues to hold positions, a figure that includes the Monday withdrawal from Naqoura, where a U.N. peacekeeping mission is based.
Amid accusations of cease-fire violations by both sides, Lebanon has also reported to the U.N. Security Council that Israel had launched over 800 “ground and air attacks” since the cease-fire came into effect.
In turn, Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, accused Hezbollah and the Lebanese state on Sunday of failing to meet the terms of the cease-fire agreement, warning that Israel may be “forced to act” if progress is not made.
“This is not an easy process to implement; it’s a difficult process,” Mr. Hochstein conceded at the news conference on Monday.
Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, threatened in a speech on Saturday that his group might begin attacking Israel again if the country’s troops did not fully withdraw from southern Lebanon before the 60-day period ends.
“When we decide to do something, you will see it directly,” he said.