Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers reached the Litani River in southern Lebanon on Tuesday for the first time since 2000, ahead of a ceasefire that was expected to be adopted by Israel’s security cabinet later on Tuesday evening.
The Times of Israel noted that it was the first time the IDF had been at the Litani withdrawing from a “security zone” in 2000. Israel had maintained the security zone as a defense against terrorist attacks on northern Israel, but after years of ambushes by Hezbollah and other terrorist militias, it decided to withdraw unilaterally from the territory.
In a statement, the IDF noted that it had found and destroyed significant terrorist infrastructure in the area:
In the area of Litani River, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, including reservist troops from the 769th Brigade, the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion, and the Shaldag Unit, conducted intelligence-based raids based on terrorist infrastructure concealed in the complex terrain. The soldiers raided several terrorist targets, engaged in close-quarters combat with terrorists, located and destroyed dozens of launchers, thousands of rockets and missiles, and weapons storage facilities hidden in the mountainside.
The Litani is a key geographic boundary, in that Hezbollah is supposed to withdraw north of the river under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Hezbollah did not do so.
The terms of the proposed ceasefire would require Hezbollah to move north of the Litani; the fact that IDF troops have reached the Litani before the ceasefire’s adoption is an important symbol of success for Israel’s ground war.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.