Tel Aviv:
Israel has said it won’t withdraw from land seized in Lebanon, potentially challenging an interim peace deal between the United States and Iran, reached just hours earlier, to further extend a shaky ceasefire. In the first official Israeli comments after the announcement of the deal, Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, also warned Iran that if the Islamic Republic attacked Israel in response to its campaign in Lebanon, Israel would retaliate with “full force”.
Iran has tied its interim deal over the war to halting Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Though Tel Aviv started the war shoulder-to-shoulder with Washington, it has since continuously defied the Donald Trump administration’s plea to halt fighting against Iranian proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon by bombing Beirut’s suburbs and nearly derailing the negotiations.
Katz said Israel won’t withdraw from Lebanese territory as the interim deal is pending. He said Tel Aviv plans to stay “indefinitely” in lands it holds in Lebanon, as well as Syria and the Gaza Strip.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I are pursuing a clear policy under which the IDF will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza for an unlimited period of time in order to protect the border and Israeli communities from there against jihadist elements,” Israel Katz said in a statement.
Over the past two and a half years, Israel has taken control of areas in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, amounting to 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles) of territory — an area that is slightly smaller than New York City.
Talking to the New York Times, Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a very difficult guy” and claimed that Israel “should be very thankful” to the US for negotiating a peace deal, deterring Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
But the deal could be difficult for Israel to accept, which has not been included in the peace negotiations and did not immediately respond to news of the agreement on the US-Iran deal. Israeli PM Netanyahu is set to face elections this year and is reportedly under domestic pressure to continue pursuing the conflict with Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon — seen behind the Hamas’ October 7, 2024, attack.
