Israel’s public broadcaster said on Wednesday the US had authorised a ‘long-term’ Israeli troop presence in southern Lebanon, after sources told Reuters Israel had sought an extension to an 18 February deadline to withdraw its forces.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will not travel to Washington for talks at the White House as long as the agenda includes US President Donald Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza, said two Egyptian security sources.
Israel has called up military reservists to brace for a possible re-eruption of war in Gaza if Hamas fails to meet a Saturday deadline to free further Israeli hostages and a nearly month-old ceasefire unravels.
Israel has US backing to stay in Lebanon beyond truce deadline, says broadcaster
Israel’s public broadcaster said on Wednesday the US had authorised a “long-term” Israeli troop presence in southern Lebanon, after sources told Reuters Israel had sought an extension to an 18 February deadline to withdraw its forces.
Under a truce deal brokered by Washington in November, Israeli troops were granted 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon where they had waged a ground offensive against fighters from Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah since early October.
Hezbollah combatants were to leave the zone and Lebanese troops were to deploy in the area within the same period.
The initial deadline has already been extended from 26 January until 18 February. A Lebanese official and a foreign diplomat in Lebanon told Reuters on Wednesday that Israel had now asked to remain in five posts in the south for a further 10 days.
Israeli public broadcaster KAN later cited senior officials in Israel’s security Cabinet as saying that the US had granted Israeli troops permission to stay “in several locations” in Lebanon beyond 18 February. It did not specify a new deadline.
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US, Israel’s closest military ally, chairs a committee that oversees the implementation of the Lebanon ceasefire.
Later on Wednesday, Israeli military jets broke the sound barrier over the Lebanese capital, Beirut, for the first time since the ceasefire was agreed.
There was no immediate response to a request for comment sent to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, but the head of the Israeli military’s Northern Command said he believed the terms of the deal would be executed.
“I think we will indeed reposition ourselves next week and the agreement will be implemented,” said Major General Ori Gordon on Wednesday, according to Israel’s GLZ radio.
Israel’s military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on X on Wednesday that Israeli troops remained in Lebanon after the first extension, and ordered Lebanese citizens not to return to their homes in the country’s south “until further notice”.
In a written statement, Lebanon’s presidency denied reports that Beirut had agreed to a second extension and said President Joseph Aoun had “repeatedly stressed Lebanon’s insistence on the complete withdrawal” of Israeli troops by 18 February.
The ceasefire deal ended more than a year of conflict between Israel’s military and Hezbollah that was playing out in parallel with the Gaza war.
The fighting peaked in a major Israeli air and ground campaign that uprooted more than a million people in Lebanon and left the Iranian-backed Hezbollah badly weakened, with most of its military command killed in Israeli strikes.
Israeli forces have remained in parts of southern Lebanon and its air force has continued to carry out strikes across the country on what it says are Hezbollah weapons stores or attempts by the group to smuggle arms.
Hezbollah has said it does not accept Israel’s justifications for staying in Lebanon and has urged Lebanon’s government to ensure the troops leave. The group has not explicitly threatened to resume fighting.
Egypt's president won’t go to White House if Gaza displacement is on agenda
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will not travel to Washington for talks at the White House as long as the agenda includes US President Donald Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza, said two Egyptian security sources.
Trump has infuriated the Arab world with a plan to permanently displace the population of more than two million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, claim US control of it and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
He has demanded Egypt and Jordan take in the Palestinians, and has threatened to withdraw aid from the two US-allied Arab states if they refuse.
Egypt has said Trump had extended an open invitation to Sisi to visit the White House earlier this month. A US official said no date for such a visit has been set. The Egyptian presidency and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Jordan’s King Abdullah appeared uncomfortable during a meeting with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, at which Trump discussed his Gaza plan.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty visited Washington this week. The Egyptian sources said one aim of his trip was to avert a potentially awkward presidential visit.
According to the Egyptian sources, it was made apparent to Abdelatty during a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the displacement plan would be on the table if Sisi visited.
Abdelatty responded that such a meeting would be of no use and that any discussion should be over Egypt’s plan for the reconstruction of Gaza, said the sources. Egypt has said its plan would “ensure Palestinians remain on their land”.
Sisi and King Abdullah spoke on the phone on Wednesday and urged that Gaza should be rebuilt without displacing Palestinians, said the Egyptian presidency.
The two leaders expressed keenness for Trump to lead a pathway for achieving a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders and to closely cooperate to establish permanent peace in the Middle East region.
Egypt’s close cooperation with the US has been a bedrock of Washington’s Middle East policy for decades. Since a US-brokered peace treaty between Israel and Egypt more than four decades ago, Egypt has consistently been one of the biggest recipients of US military aid, alongside Israel.
The Egyptian sources said Rubio did not repeat to Abdelatty previous threats by Trump to withdraw military and other aid, though he did urge Egypt to consider Trump’s plan.
Last year, the U.S. allocated $1.3-billion in military aid to Egypt, and in December it approved the potential sale of more than $5-billion worth of arms.
Israel calls up reservists as fears for fragile Gaza ceasefire rise
Israel has called up military reservists to brace for a possible re-eruption of war in Gaza if Hamas fails to meet a Saturday deadline to free further Israeli hostages and a nearly month-old ceasefire unravels.
Concern that the truce will collapse is growing as fury mounts in the Arab world over Trump’s plan for the US to take over Gaza, resettle its Palestinian inhabitants and build an international beach resort.
Hamas said Egypt and Qatar, which with US support mediated the ceasefire deal that took effect on 19 January, had stepped up efforts to break the impasse and the Palestinian militant group’s Gaza chief, Khalil Al-Hayya, arrived in Cairo for talks.
Hamas agreed under the deal to free three more hostages on Saturday but said this week that it was suspending the handover over what it said were Israeli violations of the terms.
Trump responded by saying all hostages must be freed by noon on Saturday or he would “let hell break out”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday Israel would resume “intense fighting” if Hamas did not meet the deadline, but did not say how many hostages should be freed.
Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to gather forces in and around Gaza, and the military announced it was deploying additional forces to Israel’s south, near Gaza, including mobilising reservists.
Trump, in a White House meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday, asked him to ensure Hamas understood the “severity of the situation” if hostages were not freed by Saturday, said the White House on Wednesday.
The standoff threatens to reignite a conflict that has devastated the Gaza Strip, internally displaced most of its people, caused shortages of food and running water, and driven the Middle East to the brink of a wider regional war.
Gazans expressed alarm that the ceasefire might collapse and urged Hamas and Israeli leaders to agree on an extension.
“We had barely started believing that a truce would happen and that a solution was on the way, God willing,” said Lotfy Abu Taha, a resident of Rafah in southern Gaza. “The people are suffering. The people are the victims.”
The Gaza war was triggered by the lightning Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken as hostages into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
In response, Israel began an air and ground war against Hamas which has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians in small, densely populated Gaza, according to Gaza health officials.
Hamas has freed 16 Israeli hostages from an initial group of 33 children, women and older men to be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the first stage of the ceasefire deal. It also returned five Thai hostages.
Negotiators hope a second phase of ceasefire talks will secure agreement on releasing the remaining hostages and a full Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza.
Palestinians fear a repeat of the "Nakba", or catastrophe, when nearly 800,000 people fled or were driven out of Palestine during the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation. Israel denies the account that they were forced out. Trump has said they would have no right to return under his plan for Gaza.
Egypt, Qatar intensify efforts to save Gaza ceasefire
Egypt and Qatar were intensifying efforts to save the Gaza ceasefire deal, reported state-affiliated Egypt’s Al Qahera news TV on Wednesday, citing an Egyptian source.
The ceasefire has looked increasingly fragile since Hamas said this week it was postponing the release of any more Israeli hostages held in Gaza, accusing Israel of violating the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
Egyptian sources told Reuters that Qatar and Egypt were in discussions with Hamas and Israel to prevent the cancellation of the ceasefire deal and to ensure its completion.
A Hamas delegation has arrived in Cairo to continue ceasefire talks, said the Palestinian militant group in a statement.
Egypt and Qatar alongside the US brokered the deal that took effect on January 19 after more than a year of extensive diplomatic efforts.
Germany paves way for deployment of police to EU’s Gaza-Egypt border mission
Germany’s Cabinet approved the deployment of police to two EU civilian missions in the Palestinian territories on Wednesday, including an operation to monitor the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt at Rafah.
Government ministers agreed in principle to Germany’s participation in the two missions, which include the EU mission helping secure the entry and exit point at Rafah and the Eupol Copps mission that aims to support Palestinian police forces.
The timing as well as the size of Germany’s contribution has yet to be decided. Germany’s involvement did not require the blessing of the Bundestag parliament because they are civilian missions, said government officials.
“A security architecture must be created that prevents Hamas from regaining control of the Gaza Strip,” said the government spokesperson, adding that both missions contributed to this goal.
The European Union last month restarted the civilian mission at Rafah with personnel from Spain, Italy and France to help secure the crossing.
UAE president tells US a two-state solution is key for peace in region
United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday that peace efforts in the region should be on the basis of a two-state solution for the Israel-Palestinian conflict, reported state news agency WAM.
It said the UAE, one of the few Arab countries that normalised relations with Israel, categorically rejected any attempt to displace the Palestinians and deny them “inalienable rights”. DM
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