Hezbollah has withdrawn its forces from the Israeli border by two to three kilometers, Maariv reported Thursday, citing a report from The Economist.
It is a “tactical withdrawal” and a signal to Israel and the US that Hezbollah wants to avoid an all-out war, the report said.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday told visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein that time was running out for a diplomatic solution to moving Hezbollah’s forces in southern Lebanon away from the border with Israel.
“The window of time for a diplomatic solution is short,” he said. “We are obligated to return the northern residents to their homes upon the changing of the security situation on the border.”
Absent a deal with Hezbollah to withdraw its Radwan forces according to UN Resolution 1701, which mostly involves being north of the Litani River, Israel would need to escalate its attacks on the terrorist group, even if that leads to a broader war, Gallant has said repeatedly in recent weeks.
Displaced Israelis and Hezbollah rockets
More than 80,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes in the North since October, when Hezbollah started attacking Israel with rockets and anti-tank missiles.
In the last three to four weeks, the IDF has started to attack Hezbollah more aggressively and broadly. It has succeeded in getting more than half of Hezbollah’s forces to withdraw to the Litani River.
Significant numbers of Hezbollah forces remain near the border, however, and the terrorist group has continued to fire missiles and rockets at Israel.
Gallant on Thursday specified the conditions that Israel could live with for a diplomatic deal with Hezbollah.
Short of a significant change in the security situation, most northern residents have said they would refuse to return to the border, something that would threaten the ethos of Zionism regarding Jews being able to live anywhere within Israel’s sovereign territory, including near hostile borders.