Blinken Says More than a Third of Israeli Forces in Lebanon Have Withdrawn

A member of the Spanish UNIFIL peacekeepers forces stands in front of the rubble of destroyed buildings during a patrol in the southern Lebanese village of Borj al-Mlouk, near the border with Israel, on January 7, 2025, amid a fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
A member of the Spanish UNIFIL peacekeepers forces stands in front of the rubble of destroyed buildings during a patrol in the southern Lebanese village of Borj al-Mlouk, near the border with Israel, on January 7, 2025, amid a fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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Blinken Says More than a Third of Israeli Forces in Lebanon Have Withdrawn

A member of the Spanish UNIFIL peacekeepers forces stands in front of the rubble of destroyed buildings during a patrol in the southern Lebanese village of Borj al-Mlouk, near the border with Israel, on January 7, 2025, amid a fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
A member of the Spanish UNIFIL peacekeepers forces stands in front of the rubble of destroyed buildings during a patrol in the southern Lebanese village of Borj al-Mlouk, near the border with Israel, on January 7, 2025, amid a fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said that more than a third of Israeli forces in Lebanon have withdrawn since the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Blinken, speaking to reporters in Paris, said that while challenges remain, the oversight mechanism put together by the United States and France to address concerns about ceasefire violations is working and functioning well.



Five Killed in Israeli Strike on Southern Lebanon, Health Ministry Says

Smoke rises above south Lebanon following an Israeli strike amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel, May 5, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises above south Lebanon following an Israeli strike amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel, May 5, 2024. (Reuters)
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Five Killed in Israeli Strike on Southern Lebanon, Health Ministry Says

Smoke rises above south Lebanon following an Israeli strike amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel, May 5, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises above south Lebanon following an Israeli strike amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon in northern Israel, May 5, 2024. (Reuters)

Five people were killed and four wounded in an Israeli strike on the town of Tayr Debba in southern Lebanon on Friday, the Lebanese health ministry said.

The Israeli military said it had conducted an airstrike on vehicles loaded with weapons used by Lebanon's Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon.

The army said it "continues to be committed to the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon, is deployed in the southern Lebanon area, and will work to eliminate any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens".

Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah agreed to a US-brokered 60-day ceasefire that calls for a phased Israeli military pullout after more than a year of war, in keeping with a 2006 UN Security Council resolution that ended their last major conflict.

Israel launched an offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon last September, following nearly a year of cross-border hostilities ignited by the Gaza war, pounding wide areas of Lebanon from the air and sending troops into the south.

The conflict began when Hezbollah opened fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas after Hamas launched the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.