Israel won't withdraw from southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed, the defense minister said on Thursday, qualifying remarks he made a day earlier that had suggested Israeli forces would occupy the territory indefinitely and drew US criticism. Israel seized a swath of south Lebanon during a war with Hezbollah earlier this year and has said it will keep forces there to shield northern Israel from attack by the Iran-backed group, which ignited the latest hostilities when it opened fire at Israel two days into the US-Israeli war on Iran. Israel's offensive uprooted hundreds of thousands of Lebanese. During a visit to southern Lebanon on Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been "unequivocally clear" that "we are not withdrawing from this security zone", adding, "we will cleanse this area and ensure the security of the northern residents". Following his statement, a US State Department official said a permanent Israeli military presence in south Lebanon was not consistent with commitments set out in Israel's US-backed deal with Lebanon's government. The deal foresees a progressive Israeli withdrawal linked to the verified disarmament of the group. "The United States expects all parties to act in a manner consistent with the Framework they agreed to, and Israel clearly stated that it has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon," the US official said in written remarks distributed to journalists. On Thursday, Katz said Israel would "not withdraw from the security zone in Lebanon as long as Hezbollah is not disarmed and the threat of Hezbollah in all of Lebanon is not removed". "I have instructed the army to prepare for an extended presence in the area to protect the combat forces and the communities, until this goal is fully achieved," Katz added in a ceremony marking an Israeli settlement establishment in the occupied West Bank. Netanyahu's Likud party, to which Katz belongs, is looking to bolster its security credentials among voters ahead of an election on October 27 — Israel's first since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks.
