by Yonah Jeremy Bob
The Israeli military will maintain five outposts within southern Lebanon near the border, each manned by a company of troops, for an indefinite period.
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As the IDF will mostly withdraw from southern Lebanon on Tuesday as expected, the IDF will have around three times as many troops on the defense line of the border with Lebanon as compared to before the war.
In addition, the military will maintain five outposts within southern Lebanon near the border, each manned by a company of troops, for an indefinite period.
Companies often range from 100-150 soldiers, though again, this is just a small part of the larger forces, which likely will number several thousand, if not 10,000-15,000, depending on various circumstances (the IDF did not specify the exact numbers for security reasons.)
The five outposts were not formally part of the November 27 ceasefire deal signed between Israel and Hezbollah-Lebanon.
However, Israel has convinced the US that the Lebanese army is not effective enough as of now to protect the Israeli border from Hezbollah, deepening its presence in southern Lebanon and then potentially trying to attack.
Under the ceasefire, the Lebanese army was supposed to take over all potential Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, confiscate Hezbollah weapons, and prevent the terror group from sending fighters back into the area.
Lebanese Armed Forces improving
The IDF said on Monday that the Lebanese army is doing better than ever before and is surprisingly confronting Hezbollah in some instances, but that its performance is still far below where it would need to be to allow the IDF to withdraw the rest of its forces from southern Lebanon.
IDF sources suggested that a period of two to eight months for the outposts was easily imaginable and that the military could stay there much longer if needed for security reasons.
The five outposts will be located on the Lebanese side of the border running from West to East near: 1) Levona (near Shlomi on the Israeli side); 2) Ramia/Jabal Blat (Shtula); 3) Bleideh, Bint Jbeil, and Maroun a-Ras (Avivim); 4) Wadi Saluki (Margaliot); and 5) El Hiam, Kfar Kila, Ayoun Valley, and Aamra (Metulla).
According to the IDF, there is a hope that despite threats from Hezbollah to treat the five outposts as a continued occupation and basis for conflict, they have been limited enough to reduce friction with the broader Lebanese public.
Further, the IDF said that it would be crucial to maintain an aggressive posture toward attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon anytime it tries to sneak forces into southern Lebanon and anytime it tries to smuggle powerful weapons into any part of Lebanese territory.
IDF sources acknowledged that it would not be possible to completely prevent every single Hezbollah fighter from returning to southern Lebanon since many of them can return under the guise of being civilian villagers who live there.
However, the IDF said that it had enhanced its intelligence collection capabilities to try to better distinguish between legitimate innocent Lebanese villagers and Hezbollah fighters and would work hard on the issue.
In addition, the IDF said that while it would not rely solely on the Lebanese army and American advisors helping that army, that the mechanism for reporting Hezbollah violations, with direct US oversight, was often working.
Also, the IDF said that since the September 30 invasion, it had succeeded in mostly clearing the five to six kilometer area of southern Lebanon near the border of Hezbollah weapons.
The IDF said that it hoped many northern residents would return to their homes as of March 2, given improvements for defending them as well as progress in some areas in rebuilding infrastructure and houses destroyed by around 14 months of Hezbolah rocket and drone attacks.
IDF sources said that the buffer zone in Syria is also reaping rewards in protecting Israel and that the military is working with local villagers so that they will not only not feel oppressed by the IDF presence, but will even feel some benefits.
Yonah Jeremy Bob
Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-842516
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