IDF Northern Command officials believe there is no set deadline by which the military will evacuate several points north and south of the Yellow Line in southern Lebanon. When it eventually happens, however, the Lebanese Armed Forces is expected to be the military that will search the area, destroy Hezbollah infrastructure and strip it of terrorists, Walla learned on Tuesday.
The officers find it hard to believe that the LAF will carry out, in a professional and thorough manner, the framework signed by Jerusalem and Beirut, because a high percentage of the LAF is made up of Shiite soldiers who would not dare confront the Shiite Hezbollah organization on the ground.
Therefore, until the LAF begins the pilot program, the IDF will not withdraw from any point in southern Lebanon.
Under the understandings between the two countries, the LAF is supposed to update when it is ready for the mission, which includes removing explosives, collecting weapons and military equipment, and destroying military positions, bunkers, and tunnels built by Hezbollah and the Iranians over about 20 years.
According to a security source, the Lebanese are supposed to provide a date in the coming weeks. Until then, the IDF continues to locate, map, and destroy terrorist infrastructure.
IDF destroying Hezbollah infrastructure at increasing rate
According to the source, the pace of engineering destruction of all the infrastructure Hezbollah used against Israel is increasing every day. It should be noted that, according to IDF data, about 100% of the buildings in the villages in the western and central sectors of southern Lebanon have been destroyed by it, and about 73% in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon.
One of the officers emphasized that even after Operation Northern Arrows, LAF commanders had promised the Americans and Europeans that they would work to clear the villages on the first line to the Israeli border of weapons and terrorists. According to him, in practice this was a lie, and the commanders did not act because they feared Hezbollah’s response.
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the security zone in southern Lebanon, accompanied by Defense Minister Israel Katz, National Security Council Chief Shmuel Ben-Ezra, IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Tamir Yadai, and the premier’s Military Secretary Maj.-Gen. Guy Markizeno.