Reports attributed to a US State Department official said Israel had withdrawn from some areas of the southern Lebanon buffer zones and that the Lebanese Armed Forces should move in afterward. Israel’s side rejected the claim, with Israeli security/military sources denying that the IDF had withdrawn from parts of Lebanese territory. They said the military had not been ordered by political leadership to withdraw. Lebanon also said it had no knowledge of any Israeli withdrawal, leaving the status of the buffer zones disputed amid ongoing Israel–Lebanon negotiations aimed at reducing hostilities with Hezbollah.