Local warning team units will now be responsible for securing towns adjacent to the Lebanese border (Reuters)

Israeli media outlets, including Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper and Ynet website, said that the Israeli army decided - today, Wednesday - to reduce the number of soldiers stationed in the Israeli areas near the Lebanese border and to reduce the number of military forces deployed in the region.

The Israeli Ynet news website reported that local warning team units will now be responsible for securing these towns, and will be asked to respond to incidents and security threats within their towns and cities until the arrival of military forces.

The army has evacuated tens of thousands of Israelis from dozens of towns near the Lebanese border since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip last October.

The website quoted members of the local warning teams that the Israeli army had reduced the number of soldiers stationed in the area since last November. It also quoted military officials that the decision included only the removal of soldiers who were residing within the towns themselves to transfer them to temporary points outside the towns.

The website added that the heads of the local warning teams strongly criticized the decision, which they only learned about in recent days.

The website quoted an unnamed commander of a alert squad near the Lebanese border: “They promised that they would protect us after the war in Gaza, but we never imagined that they would leave us while the war was still going on.”

He added, "No one will remain here without the army. How am I supposed to believe them when they say that there will be someone who will move and stop Hezbollah forces at the right time?"

About 28 Israeli population centers near the northern (French) border were evacuated.

Danger of invasion

The site noted that about 28 Israeli population centers near the northern border were evacuated, and their residents arrived in various cities in Israel, and dozens of them, most of them men, remained to defend their homes since the beginning of the war.

Army officials have repeatedly stressed in recent weeks that the danger of occupying the Galilee settlements no longer exists with the deployment of large numbers of Israeli forces in the Strip since the October 7, 2023 attack, especially against the backdrop of the army’s failure to protect the settlements around the Gaza Strip from Hamas fighters.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah has been saying for a full 10 years that the invasion of the northern Israeli settlements is on its agenda.

A member of the local support forces believes that the danger of Hezbollah invading the northern settlements still exists daily.

The decision to reduce army forces in the settlements adjacent to the Lebanese border comes after Yedioth Ahronoth revealed - yesterday, Tuesday - a petition submitted by members of the local support teams in the northern settlements (including those adjacent to the Blue Line) to the army to support them with more personnel, because the number currently deployed (a few dozen (of individuals) alone cannot undertake the defense mission, noting that the residents of 28 settlements adjacent to the Lebanese borders have been evacuated since last October 7.

The army launched a call for reserve soldiers to volunteer in local support teams, which are generally made up of reserve soldiers between the ages of 41 and 70. They now fear that they will be relied upon first to confront any infiltration or occupation plans.

Mutual bombing

On the other hand, Al Jazeera's correspondent said that 3 Israeli raids targeted areas between the towns of Hanin and Al-Tiri in southern Lebanon.

While the Israeli Channel 12 reported that 3 missiles were launched from Lebanon towards the Al-Manara area in the Upper Galilee, without causing any casualties. The Israeli army also reported that shells fell from Lebanon on open areas near Al-Manara and Kfar Yuval in the Upper Galilee, without causing any casualties.

On the other hand, Lebanese Hezbollah said that it targeted with missiles a gathering of Israeli occupation soldiers in Al-Tayhat Hill in southern Lebanon, and achieved a direct hit.

Since October 8, coinciding with the war in Gaza, the Israeli-Lebanese border has witnessed tension and intermittent exchanges of fire between the Israeli army on the one hand and Hezbollah and Palestinian factions on the other hand, which led to deaths and injuries on both sides, and among Lebanese civilians.

Source: Al Jazeera + Anatolia