A U.S. military delegation met with Lebanon’s army in Beirut to discuss the implementation of Israel’s withdrawal from a “pilot zone” in occupied territory, a Lebanese military official told AFP on Saturday (July 11, 2026).

Under a framework agreement reached on June 26, Israel will gradually withdraw from areas of southern Lebanon where it has deployed troops to fight Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia movement.

As part of the agreement, the long-disempowered Lebanese military will take full control of two small areas dubbed pilot zones.

“The American military delegation arrived and began meetings with the Lebanese army command to discuss the mechanisms for implementing the first pilot zone from which the Israelis will withdraw, allowing the Lebanese army to deploy,” the official said, requesting anonymity.

“This is the main objective the American military delegation is bringing to Lebanon… it is the translation and implementation of the framework agreement.”

U.S. ambassador Michel Issa told President Joseph Aoun on Thursday (July 9, 2026) that the American delegation was coming to “determine the mechanism” for the deal’s implementation.

In Washington, a U.S. official had said on condition of anonymity that “the first pilot zone will launch in a matter of days, and further pilot zones are being mapped out and planned”.

U.S. Central Command will coordinate on the zones with both countries, he said.

The agreement — rejected by Hezbollah — does not set a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal, and Israeli officials have also vowed that their forces will remain in a “security zone” 10 kilometres (six miles) deep as long as Hezbollah remains armed.

The war, which began in early March when Hezbollah entered the wider West Asia conflict on the side of its backer Iran, displaced more than a million people in Lebanon, according to the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA.

On Saturday (July 11, 2026) the agency said more than 732,000 people had now returned home, up from 640,000 a week before.

That leaves more than 430,000 still displaced, it added.

Israel has pursued intermittent strikes despite a truce in its war with Hezbollah, with Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reporting several in the south on Saturday (July 11, 2026).

The latest talks between Lebanon and Israel, which have no formal relations but have met for five rounds of negotiations since the start of the war, will take place in Rome next Wednesday and Thursday.

Lebanon conditions its participation on Israel withdrawing from two pilot zones.

The talks precede Aoun’s expected visit to Washington later this month at the invitation of his American counterpart Donald Trump.

Lebanon said 18 people were killed on Friday (June 19, 2026) in Israeli airstrikes in the south, while Israel’s military reported its first soldiers killed there since the sealing of a U.S.-Iran deal to halt the war in West Asia, including in Lebanon.

Israel had said it was striking Hezbollah targets overnight and into the morning, while the Iran-backed militant group said it was attacking Israeli forces around the southern town of Nabatieh.

“The intensive Israeli airstrikes carried out from midnight until this morning have prevented the evacuation of the martyrs and wounded, and have resulted in a preliminary toll of 18 martyrs and 33 wounded” in at least 10 villages and towns, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

The strikes were the deadliest since Iran and the United States agreed to halt the wider war in West Asia on Monday.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said Lieutenant Colonel Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon had “fallen in combat” along with three other soldiers it did not immediately identify.

In a separate statement it reported a reserve officer was severely wounded “as a result of an explosive drone impact in southern Lebanon”, with four other soldiers lightly injured in the incident.

Israeli hardliners’s reply to U.S.

The soldiers’ deaths prompted a furious reaction from far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

“With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not up for bargaining. All of Lebanon must burn,” Ben Gvir said in a statement.

U.S. officials including President Donald Trump have expressed frustration at Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, which it has pursued in spite of the US’s negotiations with Iran, as well as a separate ceasefire agreed in April that was meant to halt the fighting there.

The Israeli military had said in an earlier statement that it was carrying out strikes in response to “repeated violations of the ceasefire” by Hezbollah.

“During the night, the army struck and continues to strike Hezbollah terrorists and infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon,” it said.

Hezbollah said early on Friday (June 19) that it had targeted Israeli troops “with a barrage of rockets and mortar shells” near the Ali al-Taher hills, a strategic feature overlooking the town of Nabatieh.

It had also reported attacking Israeli tanks, saying forces “consisting of an armoured platoon and an infantry platoon (tried) to infiltrate towards the northern side of the Ali al-Taher hills”.

“The clashes are still ongoing,” it said.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the war in West Asia in early March by attacking Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader at the start of the U.S.-Israeli military campaign.

Israel retaliated with broad strikes across Lebanon and by launching a ground invasion in the south, which borders Israel and has long been under Hezbollah’s sway.

The hostilities have continued despite the U.S.-Iran agreement.

On Thursday (June 18), Hezbollah said it had been fighting Israeli forces attempting to advance from the town of Arnoun towards the outskirts of Kfar Tibnit, also near Nabatieh.