Israeli troops withdraw from the eastern part of southern Lebanon

Beirut- Israeli troops have withdrawn from eastern parts of south Lebanon, the United Nations peacekeeping force said on Wednesday as it began patrolling the area. "The Israeli army pulled back from the regions of Bastara, Kfarshuba and Shebaa," the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said.

Lebanese troops are eventually to take over responsibility for the area for the first time in decades, with UNIFIL acting as a go- between.

On Sunday, Israeli forces still occupied nine positions in southern Lebanon, two weeks after a truce was declared between the Israelis and Shiite Hezbollah militants, a Lebanese army spokesman said.

Lebanese soldiers were now around 150 metres from Israeli positions, in particular at the Fatima border crossing point.

Raw Story

JERUSALEM, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Israel's army has handed over more than two thirds of the territory it captured in southern Lebanon to U.N. troops and Lebanese forces since a truce with Hizbollah took effect, the army said on Thursday.
"The army is controlling less than a third. The rest of the territory was handed over to UNIFIL and the Lebanese army," a spokesman said, adding that another small patch of territory not far from the border was handed back on Wednesday.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday renewed his call on Israel to withdraw fully from Lebanon as soon as 5,000 U.N. peacekeepers were in the south, around double the number there now.

But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rebuffed the demand, saying troops would stay in southern Lebanon until all parts of a U.N. resolution that halted hostilities on Aug. 14 were met.

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JERUSALEM Aug 31, 2006 (AP)— The Israeli army said Thursday that it has transferred control over a portion of the Israel-Lebanon border to Lebanese and international troops for the first time in two decades.

At the time of the cease-fire two weeks ago, which ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas, Israeli troops occupied a security zone 18 miles inside of Lebanon. It has been slowly transferring control of the region to arriving Lebanese and U.N. troops since then.

On Wednesday, the army gave up control of a small area of the border near the Israeli border town of Metulla, the army said. Israeli soldiers still patrolled other parts of the border.

The army did not say how many of its troops remained in Lebanon, but said it has evacuated more than two-thirds of the area south of the Litani.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2378388