Israel is expected to present a plan for a limited pilot withdrawal from a small area in southern Lebanon during a three-day round of negotiations with Lebanon opening in Washington on Tuesday, according to a Channel 12 report.
The report said the Israeli delegation will arrive with maps and outline a pilot zone in which the IDF would pull back from a relatively cleared section of territory. Lebanese forces would then enter the area under American supervision.
An Israeli source quoted in the report said the proposed pilot zone would be south of the Litani River, beyond the Blue Line.
The proposal is part of efforts by Israel's security establishment and government to build confidence on the ground and avoid having the process dictated by Washington or Tehran, the report said.
The talks are expected to end on Thursday afternoon and will be divided into political and military working groups. The political delegation will be led by Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter and Yossi Dreznin, a senior National Security Council official and envoy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The military delegation will be headed by Michael Levin, chief of the IDF Strategy Division, together with acting military attaché Arik Ben-Dov.
The negotiations are taking place within a US-brokered framework aimed at advancing a comprehensive peace and security agreement between Israel and Lebanon, with Washington keeping the political and military tracks synchronized. The American delegation is led by State Department Counselor Dan Holler and Daniel Zimmerman, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.
The previous round of talks in Washington ended with a ceasefire agreement and marked the fourth US-mediated meeting between the sides. President Donald Trump later said he hoped peace between Israel and Lebanon could be reached this year and that he wanted to host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Washington within weeks.
All sides, including Israel, Lebanon and the United States, are entering the new round with hopes of concrete results by the end of the week.
According to the report, the IDF will meanwhile continue to hold strategic positions in southern Lebanon where its mission has not yet been completed, especially in the Ali Taher Ridge area. A large underground Hezbollah complex remains there, and the army is weighing ways to destroy it without disrupting the diplomatic process. Division 36, including the Givati Brigade and the 401st Brigade, is operating in the area in a complex engineering and logistical effort.
The report added that the military recommendation on the underground site is expected to be submitted to the political leadership, with a decision due in the coming days.