The buffer zone on the border with Lebanon or the Philadelphia corridor on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt will both have an Israeli military presence.
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| Israel will not withdraw from the Philadelphia Corridor, the Egypt-Gaza border area, at the end of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. (Source: Reuters) |
TASS news agency reported that on February 27, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are "staying indefinitely" in the buffer zone on the border with Lebanon after providing the US with a map of the buffer zone and receiving the "green light" from the US.
"We will stay indefinitely, depending on the situation, not depending on time," Minister Katz made clear.
Earlier last week, Ynet news agency reported that the IDF would withdraw from southern Lebanon under the ceasefire agreement, but would maintain five strategic positions to prevent Hezbollah units from continuing to operate in southern Lebanon.
The ceasefire agreement, reached on November 27, 2024, through US-French mediation, calls for the deployment of the Lebanese army along the entire southern border, supported by UN peacekeepers , while Hezbollah withdraws across the Litani River.
Israel was also to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon within 60 days, but the parties later reached an agreement to extend the terms of Israel's withdrawal until February 18.
During the ceasefire, Israel continued to carry out sporadic attacks on sites in Lebanon that Israel accused Hezbollah of still using to conduct military operations.
Most recently, on February 27, the IDF said it used unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack a Hezbollah observation post in the Aynata area of southern Lebanon after detecting activity there.
Meanwhile, on the same day, an Israeli official announced that it would not withdraw from the Philadelphia corridor, the Egypt-Gaza border area, at the end of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. The official accused Hamas of smuggling weapons across the border area.
Responding to this statement, the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip affirmed: "This is a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement and an attempt to create a pretext for the collapse of the agreement in the future."
Hamas said it was "fully committed to the terms of the agreement" and ready to negotiate a second phase, while asking mediators and "the entire international community" to take "serious and immediate measures to force the Israeli authorities to implement their part of the agreement".
Source: https://baoquocte.vn/trung-dong-my-bat-den-xanh-israel-tuyen-bo-quan-doi-o-lai-vung-dem-lebanon-vo-thoi-hanh-lang-philadelphi-305896.html
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