Israel pulls out last troops from Lebanon
Middle East Desk Report

MARWAHEEN (Lebanon)—The Israeli army abandoned positions in Lebanon early Sunday, withdrawing the last of its troops from its neighbor and fulfilling a key condition of the Aug. 14 cease-fire that ended a monthlong war against Hezbollah.
Witnesses said the Israelis began moving tanks and armored carriers out of a few pockets near the border in southern Lebanon after midnight.
Israeli military officials said the last soldiers returned to Israel around 2:30 a.m., ahead of the onset of Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.
An armored column creaked across the border at the Israeli border community of Moshav Avivim, leaving tread marks in the soil and sending a cloud of dust into the air that was illuminated by the vehicle's headlights.
Israeli forces abandoned their hilltop position near the village of Marwaheen early Sunday. Lebanon's state-run news agency said Israeli forces also vacated nine other positions.
The pullout ended a nearly three-month troop incursion into Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah guerrillas who had fired rockets on Israel. It clears the way for the full deployment of an international peacekeeping force that will police the border with the Lebanese army.
"Significant progress has been achieved today," Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, said in a statement.
Miri Eisin, an Israeli spokeswoman, said Israel was "now waiting for Lebanon to do its part under the truce." Israel wants Lebanon to keep Hezbollah out of the south and disarm it.
Israeli surveillance flights over Lebanon will continue, Israeli officials said. Both Lebanon and the United Nations consider the flights a violation of the U.N.-demarcated border.
Another source of friction could be at Ghajar, a divided border village where unspecified number of Israeli soldiers remained in the Lebanese section, according to Israeli reports.
Not long after the Israelis had left Marwaheen, a white U.N. armored personnel carrier with three Ghanaian soldiers on top arrived at Marwaheen from a nearby U.N. base, apparently to verify the Israeli withdrawal.
Two Lebanese plainclothes military intelligence officers then inspected the site. Another man in civilian clothing who came to look at the area said he was from Amal, the Shiite group allied with Hezbollah.
Marwaheen residents said they were glad the Israeli soldiers had left.
"May God never bring them back," said Mohammed Musseileh, a 67-year-old Marwaheen farmer. His 65-year-old brother Salem, also a farmer, added: "They are a treacherous enemy. They could be back anytime."
The Israeli military had used Marwaheen as a communications outpost during the 1982-2000 occupation of a security zone in southern Lebanon. After Israel withdrew back then, Hezbollah took charge of the strategic hill that overlooks Israeli border areas. The Israelis captured it when they entered Lebanon during the July 12-Aug. 14 fighting.
During this summer's war, residents fleeing Marwaheen, a Sunni Muslim village that survives on tobacco and olive crops, came under missile fire that killed 12. Only half of its 400 residents have returned, village officials say.
Israel has been gradually withdrawing troops since the cease-fire went into effect, from a peak of 30,000 during the fighting to several hundred soldiers.
Israel sent the troops into Lebanon shortly after Hezbollah guerrillas abducted two soldiers and killed three others in a July 12 cross-border raid. More than 150 Israelis and 850 Lebanese were killed.
Israeli officials had been reluctant to withdraw the last of the troops. They cited disagreements over the deployment of Lebanese and U.N. forces in southern Lebanon, which has long been a stronghold of the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah guerrillas.
Israel is concerned about the force's ability to prevent Hezbollah from rearming.
The U.N. resolution that ended the fighting calls for 15,000 peacekeepers to work with an equal number of Lebanese soldiers to prevent new hostilities. It mandates a full Israeli pullout and requires the south be weapons-free except for arms approved by the Lebanese government.
Some 10,000 Lebanese soldiers and more than 5,000 U.N. troops have been deployed in the south.