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Israel Begins Troops Withdrawal From South Lebanon
Hundreds of Israeli troops left south Lebanon under the cover of darkness early Tuesday morning amid reports that Israel will end its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon within days.
Security sources in Lebanon said the predawn withdrawal involved some three-quarters of the Israeli forces in the security zone in south Lebanon, which Israel set up in 1985 with a self-claimed purpose of protecting its northern security.
The Israel Defense Force (IDF) cleared the Bint Jubeil outpost, the second largest outpost in the zone, and around 120 IDF officers and soldiers have withdrawn to Israel overnight, an army statement said.
It added the withdrawal was orderly. "The IDF redeployed in the security zone in line with the new situation in the sector."
Reports from the Israeli-Lebanese border said that convoys of the IDF soldiers drove out of Lebanon at daybreak Tuesday in tanks and jeeps.
The move followed an emergency Israeli cabinet meeting Monday night at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv empowering Barak to speed up the pullout.
This was in view of the faster-than-expected collapse of the pro-Israeli militia South Lebanon Army and the advance of Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas to snatch up the outposts, turned over by Israeli troops to the militiamen but abandoned by them almost immediately.
Hezbollah guerrillas and Lebanese villagers have reclaimed about one 10th of the Israeli self-styled buffer zone in south Lebanon within days, which could bring Israeli occupation to a quicker end. The army radio quoted high-ranking army officers as saying the pullout from south Lebanon would be over within the next few days.
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