The Lebanese army expands its deployment south

Paula Astih wrote in Asharq Al-Awsat:

On Saturday, the Lebanese army expanded its deployment in areas from which the Israeli army continues to withdraw in the western sector as part of implementing the ceasefire resolution that entered into force on the twenty-seventh of last November.

Macron – Berri
During a phone call with the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, French President Emmanuel Macron affirmed France’s commitment to continue supporting Lebanon in all fields, especially the Lebanese army, and its keenness to implement the ceasefire agreement in southern Lebanon, promising to visit Lebanon in the near future, and congratulating the election of a president. New to the Republic, praising Berri’s role and his efforts to fulfill the promise he made in order to complete the entitlement at a historic moment for Lebanon.

In turn, the Speaker of the House of Representatives thanked the French President and France for their constant support for Lebanon and their participation in the UNIFIL forces and in the five-year technical committee that supervises the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, stressing the importance of adhering to the ceasefire, stopping Israeli violations, and Israel’s withdrawal within a 60-day period. From all Lebanese lands.

Israel’s withdrawal
As this deadline approached, the Hebrew website Kan indicated that the American envoy, Amos Hockstein, announced that the United States had guaranteed a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from southern Lebanon before the end of the ceasefire.

The Acting Army Commander, Major General Hassan Odeh, received in his office at the Ministry of Defense the Chairman of the Five-Year Supervisory Committee (Mechanism), American General Jasper Jeffers, and a delegation from the committee, and the meeting discussed developments in the south and the stages of implementing the ceasefire agreement.

Field developments
On the ground, more than one source reported, on Saturday, that army personnel deployed inside the town of Tair Harfa, Wadi Ain al-Zarqa, and al-Batishiyya between it and al-Duhair, as well as the town of Ramiya, while the Israeli army continued operations to blow up homes in the town of Aita al-Shaab in the Bint Jbeil district. This resulted in strong voices that resonated in a number of southern regions, according to the National News Agency.

Civil Defense members were able to recover the bodies of 3 people, on Saturday, in the town of Khiam, while the Lebanese Civil Defense ambulance and rescue teams began supporting the army in the process of removing the rubble to recover bodies still present in the Naqoura area.

It was also reported, on Saturday, that “an Israeli drone threw a sound bomb at citizens who were moving furniture from their home in Aitaroun,” while an Israeli drone targeted a car in the border town of Kunine without hitting it.