🔺 Katz rejected the plan for the Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon

▪ Israel’s defense minister, in remarks that Israeli media described as a response to Donald Trump, the U.S. president, rejected the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon.

▪ Yisrael Katz said in a statement: “We did not ask anyone for approval to enter Lebanon, and we do not need anyone’s approval to remain in Lebanon.”

▪ On Wednesday, during his meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the President of Syria, on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Donald Trump said about the possible withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon: “I spoke about this with Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu]. I think they will do it.”