According to the report in Lebanese media, Israel has received approval from US officials to remain in key parts of southern Lebanon to prevent the re-establishment of Hezbollah

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein said during the latest meeting of the ceasefire monitoring committee that Israel would withdraw within 15 days from south Lebanon’s western, central and eastern sectors, al-Akhbar newspaper reported

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With the deadline looming for the terms of a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah to be met, an American diplomat on Monday said “much progress” had been made recently.

It is the second such pullout since a Nov 27 ceasefire, and came after United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanon’s prime minister late last month called on the Israeli army to speed up its withdrawal from Lebanon’s south.

Lebanon is geared to select a new president this week as the army has made significant strides in taking over for IDF troops deployed in southern Lebanon

Israel and Hezbollah agreed to pull their forces out of southern Lebanon before the end of January. The area will then be secured by the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers, as part of the agreed conditions of the ceasefire.

An Israeli official told The Post that plans for the withdrawal of the IDF “don’t change the fact that after the ceasefire terminates, Israeli forces will need to remain in southern Lebanon.”

Hochstein confirmed that Israeli troops have started pulling back from Naqoura, a town near the U.N.-demarcated Blue Line, and returning to Israeli territory. He emphasized that the withdrawals would continue until all Israeli forces leave Lebanon, while the Lebanese Army takes over security responsibilities in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers.

The Biden administration in its final days is shifting more than $100 million in military aid from Israel and Egypt to Lebanon as it tries to bolster a ceasefire agreement it helped mediate between Israel and Hezbollah.

Efforts could stave off premature withdrawal and unnecessary return to fighting. Soldier wounded in northern Gaza.