✡️ Shavua Tov to our Israel Realtime community. May this new week bring safety, strength, and success to you and your families — and may we hear only positive news.
🔸 Israel and Lebanon have signed a U.S.-brokered framework agreement in Washington, formally launching bilateral negotiations.
A Declaration of Intent has been agreed upon and is expected to be signed shortly in the presence of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The sides have also agreed on two pilot areas from which Israeli forces will withdraw. The withdrawal timetable for these two pilot areas is intended to serve as a prelude to a full Israeli withdrawal at a later stage.
🇮🇱 Defense Minister Israel Katz says Israel will maintain its security zone in southern Lebanon.
Calling the agreement “historic,” Katz said it “may, for the first time in decades, shape a new and safer reality along the northern border and in Lebanon.”
He stressed that the IDF will not completely withdraw from Lebanon and will continue to hold the security zone, including the Beaufort Castle ridge area.
“The test will be the implementation of the agreement, and many challenges are still expected,” Katz said. He added that he instructed the military to prepare for “a prolonged stay in the security zone” and to make the necessary preparations to protect IDF soldiers and remove threats to communities in northern Israel.
Katz said the agreement establishes that “there will be... no withdrawal whatsoever as long as the Hezbollah terror organization has not been disarmed throughout Lebanon.”
He also called the agreement “a strategic blow to the Iranian axis,” saying Iran failed in its efforts to force an Israeli withdrawal through threats and pressure on the United States.
Katz warned Tehran: “If Iran attempts to attack Israel to prevent the implementation of the agreement, we will act against it with great force.”
📍 Prime Minister Netanyahu says Israel will remain in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed.
“Israel remains in the security zone in southern Lebanon. This is a great achievement, and we will maintain it as long as Hezbollah is not disarmed, as long as a threat to the State of Israel exists.”
Netanyahu said Iran “is trying to force us into a withdrawal by force from southern Lebanon,” adding that “Israel, Lebanon, and the US are telling them — this is none of your business. You have no role in Lebanon. Not you, not Hezbollah, and not any terrorist organization.”
He said Israel is allowing the Lebanese Army to begin organizing itself to take control of territory while Israel proceeds with two pilot withdrawal zones recommended by the IDF. According to Netanyahu, one is entirely outside the security zone south of the Litani River, while the second is north of the Litani and includes a small portion of the expanded security zone established over the past two weeks that, he said, the IDF determined it no longer requires.
Netanyahu added that Israel will continue to hold the original security zone beyond Hezbollah’s anti-tank missile range, saying, “We do not allow Hezbollah to enter there, nor the [civilian] population.”
⚠️ Pro-Hezbollah protests erupted in Beirut following the agreement.
Crowds denounced the U.S.-brokered framework agreement as a “surrender deal” and demanded an unconditional Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
Protesters blocked Salim Salam Road and routes leading to Beirut International Airport while waving Hezbollah and Iranian flags, setting fires, and riding motorcycles through Beirut’s Dahieh district.
Lebanese security forces deployed to the area, using tear gas in some locations to disperse demonstrators.
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