By Steven Scheer and Maya Gebeily
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, June 4 (Reuters) - Israel will continue to strike Lebanon for the time being and won't be withdrawing from the south, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday, after Lebanon and Israel agreed to a ceasefire contingent on Hezbollah halting attacks.
The deal was announced in Washington after talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials, part of a U.S.-led diplomatic track to which the Iran-backed Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah is not a party. Hezbollah has
yet to comment on the agreement.
Israel carried out several attacks in southern Lebanon on Thursday, security sources said. Lebanon's National News Agency reported a drone strike on a motorbike killed one person and wounded another. A drone buzzed over Beirut.
The Israeli military, in a warning to residents of the south, said it was continuing to target Hezbollah facilities.
The war has continued despite several ceasefires declared from Washington since April. Hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on March 2, when the group opened fire in support of Tehran as it came under U.S.-Israeli attack.
The war has become a sticking point in diplomacy towards resolving the regional conflict. Tehran, whose Revolutionary Guards established Hezbollah in 1982, has demanded an end to Israeli attacks in Lebanon as part of any deal.
ISRAEL TO REMAIN IN 'SECURITY ZONE'
A statement released by the U.S. State Department said the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire was contingent on Hezbollah completely halting fire and the evacuation of all its operatives from the area between the border and the Litani River.
It made no reference to an Israeli withdrawal from the south, where Israel has seized a self-declared security zone, saying it aims to protect northern Israel from attacks.
In a statement, Katz said Israeli forces would remain in the security zone, including the area of Beaufort castle, seized by Israeli forces at the weekend, "and without the return of the population", Katz added. Israel "will, for the time being, continue its fire and operations on the ground", he said.
Israel's campaign has forced some 1.2 million people to flee their homes, including hundreds of thousands from southern Lebanon, Lebanese authorities say. Most are Shi'ite Muslims.
LEBANESE ARMY TO CONTROL 'PILOT ZONES'
The joint statement said Lebanon and Israel agreed "to swiftly advance the creation of pilot zones in which the Lebanese Armed Forces will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors".
The Lebanese army deployed into the south as part of a ceasefire agreed in November 2024 to end the last Hezbollah-Israel war, and declared in January that it had established control over the area between the border and the Litani.
The Lebanese presidency and premiership have yet to comment on Wednesday's announcement.
Lebanese ambassador to Washington Nada Hamadeh Moawad called it "a very historic moment for Lebanon."
Lebanon's Maronite Christian President Joseph Aoun and the Sunni Muslim Prime Minister Nawaf Salam have been seeking Hezbollah's peaceful disarmament for a year, fuelling tension with the group.
Hezbollah has demanded Beirut quit the Washington talks.
BEN-GVIR SAYS CEASEFIRE A 'SERIOUS MISTAKE'
Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called the ceasefire a "serious mistake" and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should bring it to the cabinet for a vote.
Ben-Gvir said that Hezbollah would not withdraw its fighters from the area south of the Litani River and that the Lebanese Armed Forces were incapable of forcing Hezbollah to comply.
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Israel would not carry out attacks on Beirut after Netanyahu had said he had ordered strikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs.
That announcement prompted criticism from Netanyahu's political opponents, and some allies, that the prime minister had ceded sovereignty.
Katz said Israel would continue to "dismantle terrorist infrastructure in the area" while Israel had "freedom of action, backed by the United States, to strike in Beirut in response to attacks on Israeli communities and territory".
A U.N. peacekeeper in Lebanon died on Thursday from wounds sustained when mortar shells hit his position near Marjayoun in southeastern Lebanon late the previous night, the U.N. peacekeeping mission UNIFIL said.
UNIFIL, which did not say where the shells originated, said two other peacekeepers were wounded and that it had opened an investigation into the incident.
(Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem, Tom Perry in Beirut, Ahmed Elimam and Jana Choukeir in Dubai; Writing by Alexander Cornwell and Tom Perry; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Peter Graff)
