LEBANON: UNIFIL expects final withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon's southern border areas by end of September

Record ID: 395426

  • Title: LEBANON: UNIFIL expects final withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon's southern border areas by end of September
  • Date: 23rd September 2006
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF U.N. HEADQUARTERS
  • Embargoed: 8th October 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA82KRPBJ2H54T1LWL514ZGVKJL
  • Story Text: Israeli troops withdrew on Friday morning (September 22) from two positions in Houla border area in southern Lebanon, said UNFIL spokesman Alexander Ivanko.
    On Wednesday (September 20), Israel's army chief said Israel is unlikely to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon by the weekend. , Israel's army chief Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz said on Wednesday, backing away from earlier predictions.
    Halutz said earlier this week that Israeli forces should be able to quit Lebanon by the start of the Jewish New Year which begins Friday night.
    That timetable was confirmed earlier on Wednesday by Defence Minister Amir Peretz as Germany and Malaysia took steps to beef up an international peacekeeping force.
    Israeli forces have been gradually pulling out from territory the army captured during the month-long war with the Hizbollah guerrilla group that ended in a ceasefire on Aug. 14.
    "This morning the Israeli defense forces tried to withdraw from two areas. One area is to south of Naqoura and all the way up to the Blue Line and the second area is to the east around the place called Mays al-Jabal if I am not mistaken, and in the vicinity area close to the Blue Line the Israeli forces have withdrawn. The force commander consider this very positive," said UNIFIL spokesman Alexander Ivanko.
    Israeli soldiers evacuated overnight (September 21) their position in Markaba border area in southern Lebanon but kept their military bases in the border area of Marwaheen, that neighboured the U.N. headquarters of the village.
    Ivanko said that Israeli troops are expected to withdraw totally from south Lebanon by the end of the month.
    "(Force commander) He expects that the Israeli Defense Forces will finalise the withdrawal of all troops from south Lebanon by the end of September," added Ivanko.
    Israel went to war after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a July 12 cross-border raid. Nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, two-thirds of them soldiers, were killed in the conflict.
    Earlier this week the army said it had withdrawn from more than 80 percent of territory captured during the war, handing it over to U.N. peacekeepers under UNIFIL II, an expanded version of the original peacekeeper garrison in the area.
    The U.N. resolution that led to the truce calls for a total of 15,000 U.N. troops to join a similar number of Lebanese army soldiers in the south.
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