IDF fires on 5 Lebanese who try to cross into Kfar Kila as 60-day withdrawal deadline expires
YONAH JEREMY BOB
Shooting likely wounded some of those who approached
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The IDF on Sunday morning fired on five Lebanese persons who tried to cross into Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon, given that the 60-day deadline for the military to withdraw passed earlier Sunday morning.
Sources indicated to the Jerusalem Post and Lebanese media and security sources reported that five Lebanese were wounded by the fire.
Despite the indications and reports, the IDF publicly only said that there had been an incident, that soldiers had opened fire to compel the Lebanese persons to distance themselves from IDF positions, and that whether anyone was wounded was being probed.
Kfar Kila is one of some dozens of locations where the IDF has said it will not fully withdraw from at this time, claiming that the Lebanese army is not fully deploying to all of southern Lebanon and is also frequently not destroying Hezbollah weapons when it takes up certain positions.
Further, the IDF has noted specific instances in which it has asked the Lebanese army to eliminate specific Hezbollah weapons, where the Lebanese army has not done so or only started the process of doing so on such a delayed basis that the IDF had to destroy the Hezbollah weapons lest the terror group succeed in moving them and hiding them at a new location.
The Lebanese government, Hezbollah, and France have all said that Israel is violating the November 27 ceasefire deal with Hezbollah even though the terror group has not launched rockets or mortars into Israel since the end of November.
The IDF already started withdrawing from significant portions of southern Lebanon in late December.
However, Israel has said that following the 2006 Second Lebanon War, it made the mistake of allowing Hezbollah to bully UNIFIL and the Lebanese army and to return to southern Lebanon where it will up a massive rocket firing and potential invasion capability, such that the IDF will act more aggressively this time to prevent a recurrence of such events.
Staying beyond the deadline?
Israel has not said definitively how long it will overstay the deadline in the parts of southern Lebanon from where it has not yet withdrawn, but various officials leaked a potential 30-day extension to the Post and other media.
Alternatively, if the Lebanese army deploys faster to the rest of southern Lebanon, the IDF might feel compelled to complete its withdrawal faster as well.
On Friday, Trump administration officials said that there should be a short additional extension for Israel’s presence in southern Lebanon to address Israeli security concerns but did not endorse a full 30-day extension and appeared concerned about the ceasefire falling apart.
Prior to leaving office, the Biden administration had acknowledged that the Lebanese army’s compliance with ensuring Hezbollah was not in southern Lebanon had only been partial but was still pushing for Israel to withdraw by the 60-day deadline and was clearly emphasizing that a collapse of the ceasefire would be the worst case scenario.
Although Hezbollah threatened to fire on Israel if Israel extended its presence beyond 60 days, as of late Sunday morning, the group seemed to be hoping global diplomatic pressure would get Israel to leave without too long of an extension and without having to return to war.
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