{"id":552320,"date":"2026-07-21T13:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/552320\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T13:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:10:11","slug":"in-first-lebanese-army-deploys-in-southern-pilot-zone-after-israeli-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/552320\/","title":{"rendered":"In first, Lebanese army deploys in southern ‘pilot zone’ after Israeli withdrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lebanese army troops began deploying in the southern Lebanese town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh Tuesday after Israeli forces withdrew from the area, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) said in a statement, in line with a US-brokered plan for \u201cpilot zones\u201d in the south.<\/p>\n

The LAF statement was referring to the initial pullout by the Israel Defense Forces units laid out as part of the plan, which envisions Lebanese army troops confiscating weapons from the Iran-aligned Hezbollah terror group in parts of southern Lebanon and phased withdrawals of Israeli troops, who are eventually meant to leave Lebanon.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military said a day earlier that the plan, dubbed the pilot zone program, has begun, but did not immediately confirm Tuesday it has withdrawn forces from any areas in south Lebanon.<\/p>\n

The handover of territory is the first test of the pilot, which Lebanon hopes will enable it to restore control over a strip of land about 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep into the country that remains occupied by Israeli troops in a self-declared \u201csecurity zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dozens of villages have been razed in that area, and public infrastructure has been destroyed, including hospitals, power stations and water pumps, amid fighting with Hezbollah. Tens of thousands of Lebanese who call the area home have been unable to return.<\/p>\n

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The Lebanese army said its units began deploying in Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh in the Nabatieh region.<\/p>\n

The army renewed a call for residents \u201cnot to head to the town until the security situation stabilizes, and to comply with the instructions of the deployed military units to ensure their safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tLebanese soldiers search vehicles at a checkpoint at the entrance to Srifa village, in southern Lebanon, July 21, 2026. (Hassan Ammar\/AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pilot serves as a test of the Lebanese Armed Forces\u2019 sovereignty in the three pilot villages, as the sole official authority authorized to bear arms in the area,\u201d an Israeli military official said on Monday after the US had announced the deployment of the LAF to some areas.<\/p>\n

Aside from Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh, the areas of Froun and Srifa are also part of the pilot. The pilot zones are intended to try out the approach in a handful of villages straddling the Litani River before it is extended to other areas.<\/p>\n

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun was due later on Tuesday to meet<\/a> US President Donald Trump in Washington to present a plan on how to disarm Hezbollah and secure Israel\u2019s withdrawal from Lebanon.<\/p>\n

A Lebanese official said Aoun believes only Trump possesses the leverage needed to pressure Israel to withdraw its troops and help Lebanon restore its sovereignty. The official said that Aoun, in addition to asking the US president to press Israel to withdraw, would also present Trump with a written proposal on how to decommission Hezbollah\u2019s massive arsenal.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into war when, at the start of March, it attacked Israel in support of its patron Tehran, two days after the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran. Relentless Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks disrupted the lives of tens of thousands of Israelis in the north of the country, causing deaths, injuries and damage.<\/p>\n

The framework, signed by Lebanon, Israel and the United States on June 26, after several rounds of direct negotiations, envisions a phased Israeli pullback from positions in south Lebanon.<\/p>\n

In exchange, the Lebanese Armed Forces are to assume sole security control of vacated areas and certify that they have been cleared of Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) meets with Lebanon\u2019s President Joseph Aoun at the State Department in Washington, DC, July 19, 2026. (Secretary Marco Rubio\/X)<\/p>\n

Israeli officials have voiced skepticism about Lebanon\u2019s ability to disarm Hezbollah, but Israel sees the deal as a vital step toward building peace with Lebanon in the long run.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah\u2019s forces long held sway in southern Lebanon before the area was taken by the IDF, despite a 2006 UN Security Council resolution that mandated its disarmament. The terror group has rejected the framework, insisting any arrangement in Lebanon be linked to wider negotiations between Washington and Tehran. It has not said whether it will resist implementation of the pilot zones in the designated areas.<\/p>\n

In the event of violations of the ceasefire by Hezbollah, the IDF said it will work with a US-led coordination cell to resolve them. Israeli officials have vowed that their forces will remain in the \u201csecurity zone\u201d 10 kilometers (six miles) deep along the frontier for as long as Hezbollah remains armed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Syrian authorities said Tuesday that they had foiled an attempt to smuggle over 200 grenades into Lebanon, apparently destined for Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

The Syrian General Authority for Borders and Customs said it seized 226 grenades that were hidden inside a car that was heading into Lebanon at a border crossing near Damascus. Last week, Syria said it stopped a large shipment<\/a> of advanced weapons and missiles heading over the border from Iraq that were destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Israel still launches occasional strikes in southern Lebanon and carries out detonations in villages it occupies near the border. Hezbollah and Israel fought a previous round of conflict in 2023-2024, after Hezbollah began firing at Israel in the wake of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tGrenades captured by Syrian authorities in a car heading into Lebanon, in a photo published July 21, 2026. (Syrian General Authority for Borders and Customs)<\/p>\n

\u2018Weaponization of cultural heritage\u2019<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Israel called on the UNESCO World Heritage Committee \u201cto reject the cynical weaponization of cultural heritage,\u201d citing Hezbollah\u2019s use of the Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon as a military base.<\/p>\n

The 48th session of the committee convenes Tuesday in Busan, South Korea.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, Hezbollah has systematically weaponized and desecrated this historic Crusader fortress, converting it into a military stronghold,\u201d Israel says of the castle, which is currently held by IDF forces after the site was captured during the recent fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cHezbollah constructed a massive network of terror tunnels directly beneath the ancient site and launched approximately 400 rockets at Israeli civilians from this compound,\u201d the Foreign Ministry continued in a statement, adding that the Lebanese state \u201cbears full responsibility for allowing a terrorist organization to exploit its sovereign territory and sensitive heritage sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets from the Beaufort Ridge toward northern Israel during the current round of fighting, mainly at the border community of Metula, the military says.<\/p>\n

\u201cUNESCO\u2019s silence on Hezbollah\u2019s systematic desecration of Beaufort, while targeting Israel\u2019s defensive operations, is a moral abdication,\u201d Israel said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tInside a Hezbollah tunnel near the Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon, July 7, 2026. (Emanuel Fabian\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n

The Foreign Ministry also blasted the Palestinian delegation to UNESCO for trying to turn the West Bank site of Sebastia into a UNESCO World Heritage Site.<\/p>\n

\u201cSebastia is the historic, biblical capital of the ancient Kingdom of Israel,\u201d said the Foreign Ministry. \u201cThe attempt to portray the site as facing an emergency is entirely unsupported by professional evaluation, and serves only as a political tool to erase the site\u2019s profound, well-documented Jewish and Christian history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real threat to Sebastia is the Palestinian Authority\u2019s own record of neglect and complicity, which has allowed the ancient ruins to suffer rampant vandalism, theft, and desecration,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUNESCO cannot remain silent when terrorists systematically hijack heritage sites,\u201d the statement continued, \u201cnor can it allow its platform to be exploited to erase well-documented history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel has accused the organization of being biased against the Jewish state and of diminishing its connection to the Holy Land. Israel also objected to UNESCO\u2019s acceptance of Palestine as a member state. In 2019, during US President Donald Trump\u2019s first term, Israel and the US both quit UNESCO. The US, which subsequently rejoined the agency under former president Joe Biden, is slated to again withdraw at the end of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lebanese army troops began deploying in the southern Lebanese town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh Tuesday after Israeli forces withdrew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[190560,153642,86,85,46,72927,11004,43],"class_list":["post-552320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-2026-israel-hezbollah-conflict","tag-beaufort","tag-hezbollah","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-lebanon-relations","tag-joseph-aoun","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}