BEIRUT: The Lebanese army was preparing to enter the southern coastal town of Naqoura on Thursday to retake its positions after observing the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area.

The army is paving the way for its redeployment by conducting an initial engineering survey of the town to remove unexploded ordnance.

This is the third withdrawal of Israeli forces from towns into which they advanced during the ground war in Lebanon launched by Israel on Oct. 1. The ceasefire agreement, effective since Nov. 27, stipulated that Israel would complete its withdrawal from the border areas it had entered within 60 days.

On Thursday, Israeli forces were seen withdrawing from neighborhoods in Naqoura toward Ras Naqoura and Alma Al-Shaab, conducting sweeps with machine guns during the retreat.

The area of Israeli incursion remains devoid of residents — under Israeli orders — until further notice.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese army prohibits citizens from returning to the towns until the army assumes control, seizes any weapons found, and dismantles any Hezbollah assets, in line with UN Resolution 1701.

The Lebanese army had repositioned in the town of Khiam about 10 days ago and in the town of Chamaa shortly before the end of the year.

Concurrently, Israeli Merkava tanks continued to shell homes in an area between the towns of Yater and Beit Lif in the Bint Jbeil district.

An Israeli patrol, reinforced with tanks and a bulldozer, advanced into the area on Thursday.

Israeli forces are still demolishing homes, bulldozing roads, and destroying facilities, rendering the border area from Naqoura in the west to Shebaa in the east an uninhabitable, scorched zone for years to come.

A security source said that “Israeli forces advanced for the first time since the start of the ground war to the outskirts of Beit Lif, where soldiers searched some homes and wooded areas.”

An Israeli unit also advanced from the town of Ramyah, while another unit, equipped with two bulldozers, moved toward the town of Majdal Zoun, simultaneously targeting homes and neighborhoods with artillery shelling.

Israeli reconnaissance planes continued to intrude into Lebanese airspace, flying at low altitude to the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Security reports indicated that Israeli forces set fire to several homes in the town of Aitaroun in the Bint Jbeil district on Wednesday night.

The secretary-general of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said that he had given “the Lebanese state an opportunity to prove itself and take responsibility for ensuring Israel’s exit from Lebanon.”

In a speech on the first day of the new year, he affirmed that “the resistance has regained its strength,” referring to Hezbollah’s military wing.

In the same context, Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan criticized “the daily Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement in many forms. The areas that the Israeli army could not reach during the aggression are now being accessed in many villages following the ceasefire, under the watch of the quintet committee and international public opinion,” he said.

There are 23 days left for the Israeli army to completely withdraw from the south under the agreement. However, a political observer expressed concern that “Hezbollah will be free to respond to Israeli violations after the end of the deadline, with a calculated response that does not breach Resolution 1701.”

On the political and diplomatic front, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday met with US Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, head of the supervisory committee overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire, in the presence of US Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who is in Beirut, met with Berri and is scheduled to travel to Damascus on Friday to see Ahmad Al-Sharaa, Syria’s de facto leader, before returning to Beirut and leaving from the city’s Rafic Hariri International Airport to France.

Barrot and French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu spent New Year’s Eve with UNIFIL French contingent peacekeepers in south Lebanon. Lecornu returned to France the next day.