Israeli Forces Pull Out of Bekaa Valley

The Israeli army pulled out of the Bekaa Valley, Mt. Barouk and the Christian hill town of Jezzine on Wednesday in the most strategically significant step yet of its continuing military withdrawal from Lebanon.

Two more major steps are expected before the phased withdrawal to the international border is finally completed by early June under a timetable approved by the Cabinet.

Wednesday’s redeployment of Israeli Defense Forces, in which troops pulled back to within about 12 miles of the Lebanese-Israeli frontier, means that for the first time in nearly three years, there is now a buffer zone between the Israelis and the Syrian army in southeastern Lebanon.

Reducing Danger

“The IDF views this as a means for reducing the possible danger of friction with the Syrian army,” an army statement said.

Senior Israeli defense sources said they expect a token Syrian redeployment southward in the wake of Israel’s pullback. But Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin warned again that Israel will be watching developments closely in the newly evacuated zone. And Chief of Staff Moshe Levy said that his men will react to any change in Syrian troop deployment that would affect the strategic situation in the area.

News reports from Beirut said that the Lebanese army’s Syrian-trained 1st Brigade began moving in to take over Israeli positions as they were abandoned. Cheering villagers reportedly showered the Lebanese troops with rice and rosewater.

Wednesday’s pullback, which defense sources said went off smoothly and without incident, took the Israelis back out of artillery range of Damascus and off Mt. Barouk, where they had operated an electronic listening post to provide regional intelligence information.

The Christian Voice of Lebanon reported Wednesday that an unidentified armed force was seen on Mt. Barouk after the Israelis left.

Israeli troops in Kfar Aana on the western edge of the Bekaa got the order to pull out at 4:03 a.m. Wednesday, according to correspondents taken to the scene in one of several pools representing the foreign press corps in Israel. The last 33 bleary-eyed, unwashed Israeli soldiers rolled up their sleeping bags and maps and set the last remaining sanitary facilities afire before boarding tanks and armored personnel carriers for the move south.

‘Never Thought We’d Get Out’

“I have been here for two years, and I never really thought we’d get out,” said Maj. Davidi, who cannot be further identified under Israeli censorship rules.

The withdrawing troops destroyed everything that they didn’t take with them and dropped leaflets warning the local population not to cooperate with “hostile elements.”

Israeli helicopter gunships provided air cover as columns of tanks, artillery pieces, troop carriers and other equipment headed either out of Lebanon altogether or to new positions along an east-west line stretching from a point south of Kfar Houne to a point south of Rachaiya. The army is expected to stay in its new positions in the eastern sector of the occupation zone until the final withdrawal to the international boundary in late May or the beginning of June.

Wednesday’s redeployment did not affect the western sector of the Israeli occupation zone. However, military sources said that troops now deployed around the ancient Lebanese port of Tyre will pull back to a line about five miles north of the international border within days.

Security Zone Coverage

After the Tyre redeployment, Israeli troops will be entirely inside of what officials here refer to as the “security zone”--a strip of territory in Lebanon along the Israeli boundary in which Israel intends to exercise near-total military control.

While officials said there will be no permanent Israeli presence north of the boundary after the final phase of the withdrawal in about a month, the security zone will be held by Israeli-financed and -equipped Lebanese militias. And the Israeli army will enter the zone as required, depending on the level of hostile activity in the zone, the officials added.

As the last Israeli armored personnel carrier clattered out of Jezzine, residents watched from their balconies and the side of the road. A few waved. Others smiled. But most stood silently.

“I’m glad we’re leaving,” commented Sam Said, an Israeli army doctor in Jezzine. “My kids are growing up, and I don’t want them to go easily to war to kill other people or be killed.”