Israel will not allow Hezbollah take over the disputed border town of Ghajar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, less than a week after his cabinet approved Israel's withdrawal from the town's northern half.
Israel's security cabinet approved the withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces troops from the northern half of Ghajar, a divided town that straddles the Lebanese border, four years after it took the area in the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
Israel captured the village, which also borders Syria, in the 1967 Six-Day War. It pulled out of the northern part of Ghajar when it withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, but returned during the war against Hezbollah six years later.
Speaking during a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Monday that it was Israel's intention to "pull out of the north side of the village and instate a regime there that would not allow the vacuum Hezbollah could use to take over the area."
The premier also extended his thanks to Frattini for the aid Israel received from Italy in working toward the Ghajar pullout deal.
Deputy U.S. Special Mideast envoy Fred Hoff, who had been working with Israel in recent months to try and advance the Ghajar withdrawal, arrived in Israel earlier Monday, meeting with Foreign Ministry officials as well as security officials in an attempt to finalize future security arrangements in the border town's northern part.
Hoff met with Minister Yossi Peled, who was named in a recent cabinet meeting as the government's liaison with Ghajar's residents.
In the meeting, Peled said that he hoped the peace and the unique fabric of life in the border town would be sustained after the many trials and tribulations the Ghajar's had undergone throughout the years.
Later this week the United Nations' envoy to Lebanon, Michael Williams will also arrive in Israel to discuss the issue, accompanied by UNIFIL chief General Alberto Estrada.
HAARETZ
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