A U.S. State Department official said on Thursday that Israel had withdrawn forces from a portion of the buffer zone it established in southern Lebanon, describing the move as a “significant demonstration of good faith” toward the Lebanese government. The official did not specify the location or extent of the claimed pullback. Within hours, senior Israeli and Lebanese officials separately denied that any withdrawal had taken place, exposing a gap between Washington’s diplomatic account and the military reality on the border.

The claimed withdrawal was framed as the first step in a U.S.-backed “pilot zone” model, under which Israeli forces would transfer occupied Lebanese territory to the Lebanese Armed Forces. According to the State Department official, the process is designed to ensure the “complete and verifiable destruction of Hezbollah’s weapons and infrastructure” and the dismantling of non-state armed groups, thereby enabling displaced families to return and restoring full Lebanese sovereignty. The official called on the Lebanese army to move into the area and clear it of militant assets, adding that the model would be repeated across southern Lebanon.

Israeli and Lebanese military sources contradicted the U.S. account. A senior Israeli defence official told Reuters that the military’s policy is clear: it will not withdraw from the buffer zone. Israel’s public broadcaster quoted a security official saying the army had not pulled back and had not yet decided on such a step. Officers stationed at a Lebanese position told the newspaper Israel Hayom they had received no withdrawal orders. From Beirut, a senior Lebanese military official said developments on the ground “show the opposite of a pullback,” noting that Israeli forces continue to enforce the buffer zone against anyone approaching, including Lebanese army troops. A Lebanese security source told Al Jazeera that no Israeli withdrawal had been recorded and that Israeli forces remain in all recently occupied positions. Separately, a Lebanese military source told Al-Arabiya that a planned Israeli withdrawal from the areas of Wazzani and Ain Arab had been scheduled but was subsequently reversed.

The contradictory claims come amid ongoing Israeli-Lebanese talks in Washington, where the pilot zone proposal has been under discussion. Viewed from Washington, the initiative is a confidence-building measure intended to break a deadlock over the buffer zone, which Israel carved out during its war with Hezbollah. However, analysts in the region note that the talks have lost momentum as Iran seeks to make the Lebanese file central to its own negotiations with the United States. For now, the absence of any confirmed withdrawal leaves the pilot zone concept untested, and no date has been set for the Lebanese army to assume control of any territory.