The IDF is removing some of its wartime forces from the Lebanese border, moving Division 146 further inland for other missions while leaving Division 91 on the border, it said on Wednesday.
In addition, Division 210 retains responsibility for the Syrian border and Mount Dov.
This decision comes after a full six months of quiet on the border with Lebanon in which Hezbollah has essentially presented no threat. Not only that, the IDF has been killing Hezbollah members who either try to move into southern Lebanon or are involved in weapons smuggling almost daily, leading to a total of 190 kills over the six months.
Furthermore, the military is retaining its five outposts in southern Lebanese territory, which include 500-1,000 soldiers.
Hezbollah is not allowed back in southern Lebanon
All of this activity has meant that only 50 out of 16,000 destroyed homes in southern Lebanon are in the process of being rebuilt.
To the extent that Hezbollah is not allowed back into southern Lebanon, and given that many of the villages there were full of Hezbollah terrorists, this could mean that most do not return or that their return could be heavily delayed.
This may be the IDF’s biggest accomplishment, as the greatest concern for the military was that once large groups of southern Lebanese returned to their villages, hundreds or more Hezbollah forces would also return under the guise of being unarmed villagers but with weapons concealed in various places.
Given these accomplishments, Northern Command head Maj.-Gen. Ori Gordin congratulated Division 146 chief Brig.-Gen. Yiftah Norkin and his troops on their major successes against Hezbollah over the last 20 months.
Additionally, the military said 60-70% of northern residents have returned out of the 60,000-80,000 who had evacuated for much of the war, though they noted that the numbers vary significantly from village to village. The IDF also said that an even larger percentage of returnees is expected between the end of this school year in June and the start of the next school year in September.
Despite those accomplishments, the IDF said Hezbollah remains a threat with as many as hundreds of medium- to long-range rockets, as well as many thousands (though less than 10,000) of shorter-range rockets and at least several hundred drones. These numbers can vary wildly as Hezbollah is constantly trying to locally produce, as well as smuggle in from Iran and others, additional weapons.
While Israeli attacks have substantially harmed Hezbollah’s ability to rearm itself, and the new Sunni regime of President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Syria has blocked many of its smuggling efforts, since Hezbollah is affiliated with Shi’ite Iran, Hezbollah does not completely lack the ability to rearm.
Accordingly, led by Brig.-Gen. Yuval Gaz, Division 91, which includes at least three reservist brigades that rotate in and out of service with other brigades, will maintain Lebanese border security.
Also, the IDF said its intelligence collection apparatuses, both mobile and stationary, have been heavily improved since before the war, as are its many new defensive capacities for tracking and shooting down Hezbollah aerial threats.
During the war, Hezbollah effectively used drones to outfox existing Israeli air defenses, such as the Iron Dome, but Israel has worked on a variety of new defenses, as well as modifying the Iron Dome, to be more ready for such future attacks.
Additionally, the military believes that the Lebanese Armed Forces have made real progress in ousting Hezbollah from large parts of southern Lebanon while also giving space to the IDF to operate at its five forward outposts.
Regarding Syria, the IDF said it has deconfliction mechanisms in place to avoid striking forces it wishes to avoid harming while focusing its attacks on targets it views as a threat.