Under a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, Israeli forces were to withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah forces were to withdraw from southern Lebanon by January 26.
The Israeli army’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon will last beyond the 60 days agreed in a ceasefire deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, claiming the agreement has not yet been fully enforced by Lebanon.
The statement, released on Friday, came after the Israeli army attacked towns in southern Lebanon, remaining engaged in “extensive military actions” in the border region just two days before it is supposed to withdraw troops under the ceasefire deal with Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported on Friday that Israeli forces rampaged through the south, bulldozing and setting fire to homes in the town of Aitaroun, damaging a mosque in the town of Qantara, and causing a “violent explosion” in Rab Thalathin.
The continued military raids came amid Israeli media reports earlier on Friday that the Netanyahu government was seeking ways of keeping troops positioned in Lebanon beyond the deadline stipulated in the ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.
Under the deal signed in November, Israeli forces were to withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah forces were to withdraw from southern Lebanon over a 60-day period ending on January 26.
Hebrew media outlet Ynet reported on Friday that Israel was asking the new United States administration to extend the deadline, claiming the Lebanese army has deployed too slowly to the south, allowing Hezbollah to regroup.
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz, the former defence minister who quit the country’s war cabinet last year, was quoted in the report as saying the military should continue to “intensify operations against any violation by Hezbollah – minor or serious”.
A United Nations source told Al Jazeera that, while Israeli forces had withdrawn from large parts of the western and central areas of southern Lebanon, field data suggested they were preparing to retain points in the eastern part.
The news comes as Lebanese residents returned to their villages in the south only to find them devastated.
The Lebanese military asked residents of the coastal town of Naqoura not to return home for their own safety, given the trail of destruction left by departing Israeli forces.
“Naqoura has become a disaster zone of a town… the bare necessities of life are absent here,” said mayor Abbas Awada, who had returned to inspect the state of his town.
The mayor said Naqoura needed “at least three years” to rebuild and that he was worried that a lack of funds, after years of economic crisis, would hamper reconstruction.