Israel rules out withdrawing from seized land

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Monday said their country will not withdraw from land seized in Lebanon after the U.S. and Iran agreed to an initial agreement extending their ceasefire.

“Trump’s agreement does not bind us,” Ben-Gvir wrote on the social platform X in a post translated from Hebrew. “Israel is not subject to the United States, and we are an independent and sovereign nation!”

“We must not compromise on anything less than the dismantling of Hezbollah, we must not withdraw from any territory that our fighters have captured and cleared of terror infrastructure, we must not return to a situation where thousands of terrorists sit on the fences of northern settlements, and certainly we must not remain silent for a moment in the face of fire directed at the State of Israel,” he later wrote.

Katz said in a separate statement that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) “will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza indefinitely,” adding that the “area will be cleared of local residents and all terrorist infrastructure, above and below ground –– including the houses in the contact villages that served as terrorist outposts –– will be destroyed.”

The defense minister also warned that if Iran retaliates over continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, Israel will strike back with “great force.”

Last week, Iran retaliated against Israel amid IDF strikes on Beirut’s southern neighborhoods. These strikes resumed Sunday, prompting President Trump to warn Israel to “not blow it” as the peace deal was being finalized.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Trump lambasted after the latest strikes in Lebanon, has not yet commented publicly about the deal. A spokesperson for his office told The Associated Press that Israel will defend itself against threats to its security.

The preliminary deal between the U.S. and Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which would resume the flow of oil and fuel exports out of the Middle East and eventually lower gas prices.

The deal also opens the door for a 60-day timeframe that allows for negotiations over the fate of Iran’s nuclear program, which the Trump administration has frequently cited as a leading reason for why the U.S. and Israel first struck Iran in February.

No formal text of the agreement has been released.