The Jerusalem Post went on an embedded visit to the IDF’s northernmost and deepest position in southern Lebanon of Hamamis, which is northeast of Metula, southwest of Mount Hermon and on the southern outskirts of Khiam.
Traveling there from an IDF base in the Kiryat Shmona area took only around 10 minutes, a smoother drive than some other trips the Post has taken into southern Lebanon which required scaling bumpier hills and valleys.
The position is heavily fortified, with large trenches and a sizable complement of soldiers, with several additional IDF units nearby the border able to race over and reinforce the position on short notice.
When the IDF announced it was temporarily holding onto five positions in Lebanon some months ago, it said that in total there would be around several hundreds IDF soldiers stationed in Lebanon.
Israel's ceasefire with Hezbollah
According to the November 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah, the IDF was due to make a full withdrawal by the end of January of this year.
But the IDF accused Hezbollah of repeated attempts to violate the ceasefire when it tried to return forces to southern Lebanon and added that the Lebanese army still seemed intimidated from enforcing the rules on Hezbollah of keeping them out of southern Lebanon.
Accordingly, the IDF convinced the incoming Trump administration of the necessity to - at least temporarily and until the Lebanese army could reliably keep Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon - maintain the five outposts (which are several hundred meters into southern Lebanon), while withdrawing most of its four divisions, which had operated there during the October-November 2024 invasion.
However, the IDF said there was no timeline for withdrawing from the five outposts and the Post noticed additional heavy new trenches being dug, suggesting a long stay which could draw out for years.
In fact, IDF sources said that as long as Hezbollah retained its power as the primary influencer in Lebanon in a way that could lead to security threats, it would be highly preferable for the military to maintain the positions to minimize the danger of any potential Hezbollah invasion and to increase the IDF’s ability to keep the Lebanese terror group out of southern Lebanon.
Remarkably and due to constant IDF pressure to date, the military has succeeded almost completely at keeping Hezbollah from returning to southern Lebanon and has succeeded completely in terms of any terrorists openly walking around the area armed.
Part of the success is that since the IDF destroyed many Hezbollah-Shi’ite border villages - which had been full with weapons - during the 2024 invasion, almost no Lebanese civilians have returned to the “contact area” - meaning within three to five kilometers from the Israeli border.
From Hamamis, there were a small number of Lebanese villages which were still standing which the Post could see and which IDF sources said were usually Christian-Lebanese villages, which had not been part of Hezbollah’s weapons-invasion of Israel plans.
However, many prior-existing villages affiliated with Hezbollah which the Post saw were still destroyed, even though the ceasefire kicked in around eight months ago.
The absence of Lebanese civilians in the three to five kilometer area or closer to the border has meant Hezbollah does not have a convenient group of civilians which it can embed-camouflage itself in with.
This camouflage strategy had been one of the IDF’s largest concerns.
That said, most Lebanese civilians have returned to southern Lebanon south of the Litani River in the area of around five to 10 kilometers from the Israeli border.
There, IDF sources indicated that there are some unarmed Hezbollah operatives who have woven themselves into the local population.