[News] 'We will not withdraw': Katz on Israeli forces in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

english.almayadeen.net
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-we-will-not-withdraw---katz-on-israeli-forces-in-lebanon--s>
'We will not withdraw': Katz on Israeli forces in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza
Al Mayadeen English
August 12, 2026
------------------------------

Israeli War Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces would remain long-term
in occupied areas of Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, ruling out withdrawal while
ordering preparations for an extended military presence.

   - [image: Israeli War Minister Israel Katz gestures toward southern
   Lebanon during a visit to Israeli occupation forces, August 12, 2026.
   (Screengrab)]
   <https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2026/8/12/c300c118-5bcc-4410-bb88-f8b14dc0b45d.png?width=1000>
   Israeli War Minister Israel Katz gestures toward southern Lebanon during a
   visit to Israeli occupation forces, August 12, 2026. (Screengrab)

Israeli War Minister Israel Katz openly declared that Israeli forces intend
to maintain a long-term occupation of areas in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/how--israel--turned-war-into-permanent-expansion-throughout>,
ruling out withdrawal from what "Israel" has designated as so-called
“security zones”
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel--to-keep--expand--buffer-zones--in-lebanon--syria>
and
ordering the military to prepare for a prolonged presence.

Katz made the remarks on Wednesday during a visit to Israeli occupation
forces deployed inside southern Lebanon, according to Israeli media
platform *Divuhim Online*, as senior commanders discussed military
preparations for a possible future confrontation with the Lebanese
Resistance.

“The Israeli army is here to stay in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria,
and Gaza and to protect the entire State of Israel,” Katz said. “We are up
above and they are down below. I have instructed the Israeli army to take
all necessary steps to prepare for a long-term presence in the area.”

The declaration comes almost two months after Lebanon and "Israel" agreed
to a US-sponsored framework involving the gradual withdrawal of Israeli
forces from southern Lebanon, the disarmament of Hezbollah, and the
deployment of the Lebanese Army, beginning in designated test areas known
as “pilot zones.”

His remarks provide an unusually explicit articulation of an Israeli policy
increasingly centered on maintaining military control beyond occupied
Palestine's internationally recognized borders, under the pretext of
creating buffer or “security” zones.

Such declarations reinforce longstanding warnings that Israeli military
expansion is not intended as a temporary security measure, but as an effort
to entrench occupation and impose new realities by force.

Katz was accompanied by Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai,
Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, commander of the 36th Division
Brig. Gen. Yiftah Norkin, military secretary Brig. Gen. Hisham Ibrahim, and
other senior officers.

During the visit, Katz received a briefing on Israeli military activity
inside Lebanon and discussed with commanders the operational preparations
required for an anticipated future confrontation with Hezbollah.
Katz openly rules out withdrawal from Lebanese territory

Katz claimed Israeli forces had established control over positions around
the Beaufort area, arguing that the occupation was necessary to protect
Israeli settlements and troops in northern occupied Palestine.

“As the prime minister and I have stated, we will not withdraw from this
security zone
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/what-lebanon-actually-signed-away-in-its-deal-with--israel>,”
Katz said.

He described the area as extending “from the Mediterranean coast in the
west to the Beaufort area and the approaches to Mount Hermon in the east,”
effectively outlining a broad zone of continued Israeli military presence
inside Lebanese territory.

“The Israeli army is here to protect the northern settlements and its
forces,” Katz continued. “We will clear this area and guarantee the
security of northern residents — and under no circumstances will we
withdraw from the security zones: not in Lebanon, not in Syria, and not in
Gaza.”

The declaration directly challenges the principle that Israeli forces must
withdraw from occupied Arab territory and gives further weight to the
Resistance's argument that Israeli military deployments cannot be separated
from a broader project of occupation.

It also recalls the logic of the Israeli “security zone” imposed on
southern Lebanon between 1985 and 2000, an occupation ultimately brought to
an end
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel--must-leave-lebanon-humiliated--defeated--sheikh-qas>
under
sustained pressure from the Lebanese Resistance.

For Hezbollah, Israeli efforts to once again establish such a zone have
been repeatedly rejected
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/no-yellow-line-or-buffer-zone--and-there-never-will-be--shei>.
The Resistance has maintained that Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese
territory cannot be made conditional on its disarmament
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/lebanon-deal-is-not-about-withdrawal--israeli-ambassador-cla>,
arguing that the continued occupation itself demonstrates the necessity of
maintaining the capacity to resist.

Katz's declaration that Israeli forces are “here to stay” therefore further
undermines Israeli and Western demands that the Resistance relinquish its
weapons while occupation forces remain deployed on Lebanese land.
Occupation presented as permanent security doctrine

Katz explicitly linked the policy to lessons Israeli officials claim to
have drawn from the October 7, 2023, operation, arguing that Israeli
security requires maintaining troops inside neighboring territories rather
than limiting military deployment to the borders of occupied Palestine.

“The lesson of October 7 is that we protect the population through the
presence of the Israeli army here, in these places, protecting them from
incursions, gunfire, and everything else,” he said. “This is our policy and
this is our doctrine.”

His remarks suggest that the occupation of territory in Lebanon, Syria, and
Gaza
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-troops-say-gaza-border-razed-to-create-fatal--kill-z>
is
being incorporated into a single Israeli military doctrine in which
permanent or semi-permanent territorial control is portrayed as necessary
for Israeli security.

Such an approach reverses the question of aggression: rather than securing
its own borders, "Israel" is seeking to push those borders outward by
maintaining troops and destroying civilian infrastructure inside
neighboring territories
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gaza-style-domicide---israel--levels-entire-villages-in-sout>
.
Katz boasts of destroying homes in southern Lebanon

Katz also openly acknowledged the destruction of homes and underground
infrastructure in southern Lebanon, presenting the devastation as an
integral part of the occupation's security policy.

“We are destroying what is underground and all the terrorist infrastructure
they built with Iranian support in order to infiltrate [Al-Khalil], and we
are destroying all the houses in the area,” he said.

He repeatedly emphasized Israeli control of elevated positions, saying, “We
are up above, and they are down below,” before concluding: “The population
is outside, the soldiers are inside, and the houses are destroyed.”

The language lays bare the material consequences of the Israeli “security
zone” policy: Lebanese civilians are displaced from their land while
Israeli occupation forces remain inside and homes are systematically
destroyed
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah---israel--razing-south-lebanon-as-state-fails-to-i>
.

*Read more: No yellow line or buffer zone, and there will never be: Sheikh
Qassem
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/no-yellow-line-or-buffer-zone--and-there-never-will-be--shei>*
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