The Biden administration, in its final days, is reallocating more than $100 million in military aid from Israel and Egypt to Lebanon to reinforce a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
This reallocation includes $95 million from Egypt and $7.5 million from Israel, the Associated Press reported last week.
Most of the money is designated to strengthen the Lebanese Armed Forces, enabling its deployment in Southern Lebanon and supporting the U.N. peacekeeping mission along the Blue Line—the de facto border with Israel, approximately 18 miles south of the Litani River.
An additional $15 million is earmarked for Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces— the country’s gendarmerie and national police—to upgrade police infrastructure and maintain control in the south. Smaller amounts include $3.06 million for Palestinian Authority police operations and $2.5 million for Jordan’s Public Security Directorate, to enhance responses to public demonstrations.
Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement that went into force on Nov. 27 and ended nearly 14 months of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Israeli forces are gradually withdrawing from Southern Lebanon over 60 days. Simultaneously, the Iranian terrorist proxy is to retreat north of the Litani, allowing LAF and U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) troops to assume control of areas previously patrolled by the IDF.
