Israel’s decision to continue to occupy territory in southern Lebanon beyond the February 18 deadline came without a lot of official comment from the US. According to Israeli DM Israel Katz, however, the US gave them a “green light” to remain militarily in Lebanon indefinitely.
Israeli media was reporting around the deadline that the US was backing the continued occupation of five surveillance posts inside southern Lebanon. The US never directly confirmed that, however, and Israel remains in Lebanon just came and went without official US comment.
The ceasefire ending the Israeli invasion of Lebanon meant to provide a 60-day window for Israeli withdrawal, which would’ve ended January 26. The US guaranteed that Israel would be out by then, but then later endorsed extending the deadline to February 18. They similarly talked about February 18 being a firm deadline that would not be extended, but then stopped talking about it at all beyond that.
Israel started building the hilltop surveillance posts before the February 18 deadline, and Israeli FM Gideon Sa’ar said that the “strategic high points” would be necessary to retain temporarily, until the Lebanese Army has sufficient control of the south.
The temporary nature of those posts seems to be at considerable doubt from Katz’s comments. He no longer presented this as anything to do with Lebanese Army control of the area, and just maintains that it is “not time-dependent.” It appears Israel will be staying as long as it wants, and the US is comfortable with that idea.
Lebanon is not so keen on the continued occupation, as it’s condemned Israel staying in the area and urged the US and France, the initial guarantors of the ceasefire, to do something about it. France proposed sending its own troops to replace the Israelis, but Israel rejected that.
Adding to the Lebanese disquiet about Israel’s surveillance-focused occupation, the Lebanese Army announced that it had found a number of hidden surveillance devices in southern Lebanon since Israeli troops left the populated areas. Sensors and cameras were reportedly found hidden in trees and among rocks around the area.
In practice, the tree-cameras are probably less of a problem than the actual Israeli ground troops still in Lebanese territory for surveillance purposes. Yet even those cameras reflect a reality where getting Israel militarily out of Lebanon is only the first step toward ending the surveillance operation.
