A Lebanese military source told Al Jazeera that the Lebanese army did not document any withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory, according to the report. The statement contradicts earlier claims by U.S. State Department sources that Israel had withdrawn from part of its buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
A Lebanese military source told Al Jazeera on Thursday afternoon that the Lebanese army has not documented any withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory, directly contradicting a U.S. State Department claim earlier in the day that Israel had pulled back from part of the buffer zone as a goodwill gesture.
As The Zioneer reported earlier Thursday, the U.S. State Department told Reuters that Israel withdrew from part of the buffer zone it established in southern Lebanon and said the Lebanese army should enter the vacated area. Israeli military sources at the time said they had received no such order to withdraw, and a senior Israeli security official reiterated on Sunday that the IDF would not pull out of southern Lebanon.
The new denial from the Lebanese military source reinforces the Israel-Lebanon information gap — with neither the Israeli nor the Lebanese defense establishment confirming the American account. The buffer zone remains contested terrain, with the IDF maintaining positions it says are necessary to prevent Hezbollah's return to the border area. The claim comes from a single source and has not been independently verified.
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