ZARIT (Israel), Oct 1: Israel’s army pulled out of south Lebanon on Sunday to complete a handover to the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers under a ceasefire deal that ended a costly war with Hizbollah guerrillas.

Crossing the frontier before sunrise, Israeli troops padlocked the border gate in Zarit, close to where Hizbollah fighters seized two soldiers on July 12 before the conflict with Israel erupted.

Villagers in south Lebanon were delighted to see the Israelis leave but most of them were preoccupied with rebuilding battered villages and shattered lives.

Lt-Gen Dan Halutz, chief of staff of the Israeli military, said that all Israeli troops quit Lebanon except for some who would remain on the Lebanese side of the divided border village of Ghajar until security arrangements were finalised. UN peacekeepers confirmed this.

Halutz cautioned that Israel would take further action there if Hizbollah moved back to the frontier zone.

“If armed Hizbollah men move to the border, and try to re-establish their infrastructure, we will act to prevent it,” Halutz said in the radio interview.

He said Israel is considering intensifying strikes in Gaza by ‘more continued and deeper ground action.’

The Lebanon war overshadowed an Israeli offensive in Gaza launched after the June 25 capture of a soldier in a cross-border raid.—Reuters