Just one day after Israel’s Foreign Minister was saying they are “committed” to the ceasefire in Lebanon, multiple media reports say that Israel is now seeking an additional 30 days to keep troops in Lebanon, beyond the 60-day deadline for the pullout currently in place.
The 60-day deadline is extremely close at this point, and will be in effect overnight Sunday into Monday. Israel has withdrawn from only a handful of villages, which they had more or less totally destroyed. They remain in scores of towns and villages, including some they first invaded after the ceasefire began.
The US “guaranteed” that Israel would meet that deadline, but its fairly obvious at this point that they will not. In the course of not actually leaving Lebanon, Israel is claiming they don’t believe Hezbollah is withdrawing fast enough.
Since the US has entirely publicly ignored Israel’s many hundreds of ceasefire violations, and continues to pretend to be upbeat about a pullout that isn’t happening, it seems likely that the US will take the Israeli claim of Hezbollah not being fast enough and run with it.
Hezbollah has largely not responded to Israeli attacks, which targeted them as well as civilian bystanders. They have repeatedly warned that their patience was limited, and would last just the 60 days of the ceasefire. Today, they warned against Israel staying in Lebanon past the deadline, noting it would be a “flagrant violation of the agreement and an infringement on Lebanese sovereignty.”
Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog said that they are negotiating with the Trump administration on remaining in Lebanon past the deadline. There are also reports of “intensive” talks between Israel, Lebanon and France about the idea of “extending” the ceasefire.
An extension of a ceasefire doesn’t immediately sound negative, but during the ceasefire Israel never actually ceased fire. This extension, then, is likely to be just an extension of Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, and an extension of them forbidding villagers to return to the homes Israeli troops are actively destroying.
