Israel's military chief said Tuesday that Israel would withdraw all remaining troops from Lebanon by this weekend, a lawmaker said. The army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the forces would leave by the start of the Jewish New Year, which starts at sundown Friday, lawmaker Ran Cohen told Israel Radio.
"He told me unequivocally that he estimates, that if everything goes well, all Israeli soldiers will be out of Lebanon by the Jewish New Year," Cohen said.
Meanwhile, some 150 French soldiers and dozens of military vehicles left Beirut Tuesday for south Lebanon, launching a week-long deployment to reinforce the U.N. peacekeeping mission. Nearly 900 French troops had gathered at a temporary camp in Beirut awaiting orders to move south to a base in Deir Kifa, east of the port city of Tyre.
The first detachment left Tuesday, stated French military spokesman Col. Jerome Salle, adding that the remainder of the troops would arrive over the next week.
