Press TV – Feb 18, 2025
Israel has missed the Tuesday deadline for its withdrawal from Lebanon, announcing it would remain in five occupied “strategic” locations within Lebanese borders.
Under a ceasefire deal reached between the occupying entity and the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah on November 27, Tel Aviv had to withdraw its forces from Lebanon’s occupied areas but the deadline was extended to February 18 after Israel refused to comply with the agreement.
The withdrawal deadline expired on Tuesday (February 18) for Israel, which has ordered its forces to remain in five strategic locations in south Lebanon in defiance of the truce and despite Hezbollah’s warnings that the regime is violating the agreement.
Israeli troops, for the time being, remain at the outposts in Lebanon “so we can continue to defend our residents and to make sure there’s no immediate threat,” said Israel’s military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani on Monday.
Hezbollah opened a support front for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after Israel unleashed a genocidal war on the besieged territory on October 7, 2023, launching numerous retaliatory attacks against targets in the occupied lands.
Israel was forced to accept the truce with Hezbollah after suffering heavy losses on the battleground and failing to achieve its goals despite killing over 4,000 people in Lebanon.
Hezbollah said at the weekend that Israeli forces that are still in the Arab country after Tuesday would be considered an occupying force.
In a statement released by the Lebanese presidency on Monday, Lebanon’s newly-elected President Joseph Aoun expressed concern that the Israeli forces might not fully withdraw by the February 18 deadline, stressing that Beirut is working to achieve a full Israeli withdrawal.
“The important thing is to achieve the Israeli withdrawal,” Aoun insisted, adding, “We are continuing contacts on several levels to push Israel to respect the agreement and to withdraw on the scheduled date, and return the prisoners.”
Earlier, Lebanese representatives on the ceasefire oversight committee, which includes officials from the United States, France, and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), had rejected Tel Aviv’s request to remain in at least five military posts in Lebanon until February 28, ten days beyond the extended deadline for the withdrawal.
Washington had reportedly told Tel Aviv that Israeli troops must withdraw from southern Lebanon by February 18, with no further extensions to the ceasefire.
According to Lebanese media, there have been over 830 Israeli violations since the ceasefire took effect at the end of November.
The original agreement mandated that Lebanon’s military should deploy alongside UN peacekeepers as Israel withdrew, while Hezbollah was also to pull back north of the Litani River.
This is not the first time the Tel Aviv regime has occupied Lebanon. Israeli forces withdrew from the Arab country in 2000 after 22 years of occupation.
I LIKE TO GIVE WEEKLY TALKS IN THE LIBRARY
in summer i may be lucky to get a dozen people
but since christmas i have had 40 to 50 people
all oldies i said to the chief librarian
i must be popular
she said no they bring sandwiches and come for the day
as they cant afford to heat their homes
i dont have the heart to thrown them out
You’re spreading yourself too thin, Israel. Please! Continue…
And step by step the Greater Israel will be destroyed.
How do you knw when a Joo is lying ?
No..actually …how do you know when they are NOT lying ?
I wonder if any jews ever seriously ask themselves why the rest of the world hates them. Is it really because it’s always been that way, the world needing a scapegoat? Or, as with the blacks, are their claims of oppression actually attempts to blame us for their own anti-social behaviors and make our disapproval of them look like mere bigotry?