Outgoing and incoming US administration officials rush to ease conflict in Lebanon as its parliament holds presidential vote this week

According to the report in Lebanese media, Israel has received approval from US officials to remain in key parts of southern Lebanon to prevent the re-establishment of Hezbollah

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein the Israeli Army has started to withdraw from the western sector of south Lebanon and will continue to do so until completely out of Lebanon in what he described as "a successful process.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said on Monday that he was happy to see the Israeli army withdraw from the western sector of Lebanon back to Israel.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein said during the latest meeting of the ceasefire monitoring committee that Israel would withdraw within 15 days from south Lebanon’s western, central and eastern sectors, al-Akhbar newspaper reported

With the deadline looming for the terms of a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah to be met, an American diplomat on Monday said “much progress” had been made recently.

US envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Beirut on Monday ahead of a meeting of the committee monitoring the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has entered its second month. The visit comes amid mounting tension and accusations of violations from both sides.

It is the second such pullout since a Nov 27 ceasefire, and came after United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanon’s prime minister late last month called on the Israeli army to speed up its withdrawal from Lebanon’s south.

Lebanon is geared to select a new president this week as the army has made significant strides in taking over for IDF troops deployed in southern Lebanon

Efforts could stave off premature withdrawal and unnecessary return to fighting. Soldier wounded in northern Gaza.

Israel and Hezbollah agreed to pull their forces out of southern Lebanon before the end of January. The area will then be secured by the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers, as part of the agreed conditions of the ceasefire.

An Israeli official told The Post that plans for the withdrawal of the IDF “don’t change the fact that after the ceasefire terminates, Israeli forces will need to remain in southern Lebanon.”