TEL AVIV/BEIRUT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday visited Lebanese territory occupied by the Israeli military, telling soldiers that Israel would not withdraw from the country’s south as long as Hezbollah continued to pose a threat.
It was the first visit by Netanyahu to occupied Lebanese territory since the Israeli and Lebanese governments reached a security agreement on Friday mediated by the United States under which Israel will hand over two areas to Lebanon’s army.
“Our insistence is that we will not leave southern Lebanon until the threat is removed,” Netanyahu told troops, according to a statement released by his office, referring to Hezbollah.
“And as long as Hezbollah remains here, armed and threatening us, we will remain here as well,” he said. Netanyahu, who last publicly visited occupied Lebanese territory in April, was joined by Defence Minister Israel Katz and senior military officials.
Hundreds of thousands head home as fighting eases, many still stranded
Pilot zones
Under the US-backed security agreement, Israeli forces are to withdraw from two “pilot zones” and allow the Lebanese armed forces to take control of the areas. Few details have been made public on how the project will work in practice. Israel invaded Lebanon on March 2, sparking a regional war that killed thousands, mostly in Iran and Lebanon but also in the Gulf and in Israel.
Israel’s military has created a “buffer zone” about 10 km into Lebanon along the entire length of the Israeli border. Israeli officials say the zone is necessary to protect northern Israeli communities from attacks launched by Hezbollah.
The military has forced the local Lebanese population from their homes and carried out raids of villages, destroying buildings. The military says it is destroying infrastructure, including underground tunnels, used by Hezbollah.
Over 4,000 Lebanese have been killed and more than a million displaced by Israel’s campaign in Lebanon since March. At least 32 Israeli soldiers and four Israeli civilians have been killed by Hezbollah, most of them in southern Lebanon.
Netanyahu told Israeli troops on Tuesday that Hezbollah still had around 12,000 rockets and missiles in its arsenal and that the Israeli military had killed 9,000 militants in Lebanon. He gave no timeframe for the latter figure but appeared to be referring to the number killed since March 2.
Thousands head home
Some 400,000 Lebanese uprooted by war have returned to southern Lebanon, with more expected to follow in the coming week, the social affairs minister said on Tuesday, encouraged by a lull in the four-month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Yet many remain unable to go back. Since March, around 1 million people have been forced to flee their homes, and large numbers are still in shelters or temporary housing because their homes are destroyed or uninhabitable, said Hanine El Sayed.
Roughly 40pc of those displaced have now returned to their towns and villages. The number of people staying in collective shelters has fallen sharply, to about 13,000 from 37,000, she said. While some shelters will remain open for families who cannot return, aid programmes including emergency cash support will continue. The number of shelters has dropped from 692 at the height of the crisis to 479, with additional centres opened in Nabatieh for those wanting to stay near their home areas.
El Sayed said the headline figures conceal a gap between those able to return and those still displaced.
“These are families that are able to return to something, at least the basic minimum,” she said. “The fact that the others have not returned means they have a much harder situation.” Authorities expect further returns in the coming days and hope within about a week to better gauge how many families cannot go back at all.
“In about a week’s time ... we would really know the size of the problem how many absolutely cannot return because their homes have been totally damaged,” she said.
Challenges
For many, returning home does not mean a return to normal life. Families are often finding damaged houses, scarce electricity and water, and destroyed businesses and livelihoods, as the government works to restore basic services and expand cash assistance, rental support and employment programmes. Yet despite these hardships, many are choosing to return.
Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2026