Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that Israeli troops will not comply with a Sunday deadline for them to withdraw from southern Lebanon, throwing the ceasefire with Hezbollah into crisis.
Confirming that Israel would not meet the 26 January deadline, the prime minister’s office said in a statement: “The IDF’s withdrawal process is conditional on the Lebanese army deploying in southern Lebanon and fully and effectively enforcing the agreement, while Hezbollah withdraws beyond the Litani [River].”
It said Israel regarded the ceasefire as “not yet fully enforced” and that “the phased withdrawal process will continue, in full coordination with the United States”.
While Israel has accused Lebanon of failing to meet its side of the deal, not least the deployment of the Lebanese armed forces south of the Litani River – about 18 miles north of the border – Lebanon has also accused Israel of violating the ceasefire.
The decision to delay the withdrawal, made at an Israeli cabinet meeting on Thursday evening, follows several weeks of briefings suggesting Israel intended to remain in at least five outposts in Lebanon.
Under the agreed ceasefire, which brought an end to the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israeli forces are supposed to have completed their withdrawal within 60 days, or by 26 January.
Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, explained the reasoning in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio earlier this week, saying more time was required from the Lebanese army to deploy south of the Litani River, suggesting the deal was not unchangeable.
“The agreement included a 60-day target for completing the IDF’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to take its place, but it isn’t set in stone and was phrased with some flexibility,” Herzog said.
“We are in discussions with the Trump administration to extend the time needed to enable the Lebanese army to truly deploy and fulfil its role under the agreement. These discussions are ongoing.
Despite a request for a delay it was unclear whether the Trump administration had agreed to the request.
Israel’s reluctance to leave Lebanon comes at a fraught juncture in the first phase of the week-old fragile ceasefire in Gaza, with a large-scale Israeli operation under way in the occupied West Bank, and a profound lack of clarity over what Trump’s policies in the Middle East will look like.
Herzog’s comments follow an earlier briefing by unnamed Israeli government sources to the national broadcaster Channel 13, suggesting the country is pushing to keep a military presence in Lebanon.
This week a Hezbollah MP said any failure to comply with the deadline would cause the ceasefire to collapse.
“We in Hezbollah are waiting for the date of January 26, the day on which the ceasefire requires a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory,” Ali Fayyad said. “If the Israeli enemy does not comply with this, it will mean the collapse of the [ceasefire deal].”
Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, accused Israel of hundreds of ceasefire violations. “We have been patient with the violations to give a chance to the Lebanese state responsible for this agreement, along with the international sponsors, but I call on you not to test our patience,” he said last weekend.
Despite its recent rhetoric, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah suffered heavy losses of personnel and materiel during the conflict, which Israel said killed its longtime general secretary, Hassan Nasrallah.
The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in December also closed a key Iranian weapons supply route for Hezbollah.
Full-scale conflict broke out in September, after almost a year of cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah, displacing tens of thousands of civilians on both sides.
Israeli forces are still operating in the buffer zone in neighbouring Syria, which Israeli forces entered after the fall of Assad despite international calls to pull back.
