TEL AVIV—Israeli troops stationed in Lebanon are increasingly caught between U.S. limits on Israel’s military operations and domestic pressure to fight on against Iran-backed Hezbollah, leaving them in a no man’s land that risks a resumption of the fighting that could derail the truce between Washington and Tehran.
On Tuesday, Israeli troops in southern Lebanon struck twice at what they said were Hezbollah militants threatening their positions around the Ali al-Taher ridge, home to what Israel says is an extensive underground Hezbollah fortress.
An Israeli offensive to capture that ridge last week nearly threw off a planned round of talks between the U.S. and Iran to wind down their war, leading President Trump and Vice President JD Vance to rebuke Israel for what they called a heavy-handed approach in Lebanon.
Israel is under pressure from the U.S. to withdraw troops, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing to maintain a security zone inside Lebanon, people familiar with the matter said. One proposal is for Israel to implement pilot projects where its troops pull back from limited areas in southern Lebanon and are replaced by the Lebanese army, one of the people said. The U.S. endorses that approach, a senior American official said.
Israel has said it won’t withdraw. Asked about that stance, Trump told reporters Tuesday, “I get problems solved real fast, including with Bibi,” referring to Netanyahu by his nickname. The U.S., Lebanon and Israel were meeting in Washington on Tuesday to hammer out a path to ending the conflict.
Tehran required an end to the fighting in Lebanon as part of the preliminary peace deal signed with Trump last week, leaving the U.S. and Israel with different objectives after fighting closely together against Iran. The divide has led to tense calls between Trump and Netanyahu in recent weeks.
Trump wants to wind down the unpopular conflict ahead of the midterms, while Netanyahu is under pressure from allies and opponents to press on with its campaign against Hezbollah ahead of elections this fall. One of the Israeli leader’s main challengers, Naftali Bennett, said Israel was endangering its troops by sending them to fight with their hands tied behind their back.
“It’s an Israeli Catch-22 that we created for ourselves,” said Michael Milshtein, a former senior Israeli intelligence officer. “You reach a situation where you are stuck in a place where you tell yourself that you can’t withdraw because it will hurt the country’s security interests and its deterrence, and on the other hand, your hands are tied.”
Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border after Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran. Israel responded by pouring in forces and capturing a six-mile swath of territory it calls a security zone.
The Israeli move is core to its new defensive doctrine based on driving threats away from its border, a strategy that Israel also pursued in Gaza and Syria following the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Even as the fighting in Lebanon has become a major obstacle to pushing forward the memorandum of understanding signed between the U.S. and Iran, Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have repeatedly said they won’t pull back from the security zone, including areas such as the Ali al-Taher ridge near Beaufort Castle, according to a map recently released by the military.
“Israel has no intention of withdrawing from the Beaufort, which is an integral part of the security zone in Lebanon and essential for the protection of the villages in the Galilee and of Israeli soldiers,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday.
The security-zone strategy is encountering significant challenges in Lebanon. Chief among them: Hezbollah’s increasing use of fiber-optic drones, which Israel has struggled to stop.
The occupied zone in Lebanon was originally designed to push the militant group’s antitank missiles out of range of Israeli towns, Israeli military officials have said. But explosive drones are capable of flying much farther. They also have emerged as a leading cause of soldiers’ deaths. Israeli military analysts worry that static soldiers make easy targets.
Israeli military officials at the army’s research and testing lab south of Tel Aviv now spend much of their time finding and testing solutions to counter drones. Soldiers there recently showcased Italian shotguns newly purchased for drone defense and flew first-person drones into defensive nets to show their effectiveness.
The military has even introduced a new type of guard duty, where soldiers assigned as sky watchers take turns spotting incoming drones.
At least four Israeli soldiers were killed during last week’s advance on Ali al-Taher ridge. Israel responded with a wave of retaliatory strikes that led Iran to delay its participation in talks slated with the U.S. in Switzerland and to announce it had closed the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The moves set off a political spiral and sharp criticism of Israel by Trump and Vance. Under U.S. pressure, Israel’s government told the military to hold fire, according to military officials and one of the people familiar with the matter.
An Israeli military official said dozens of Hezbollah militants remain trapped in tunnels under the ridge with diminishing supplies. Israeli forces have stopped conducting offensive operations like last week’s, but they are able to respond to direct and immediate threats, the official said.
The Israeli military characterized its attacks Tuesday as responding to immediate threats. Hezbollah called them a violation of the ceasefire. Two people were killed in the Israeli shootings, according to Lebanese health authorities.
A poll by the Institute for National Security Studies in May, conducted before the recent spate in Israeli soldier deaths in Lebanon, showed that 57% of Israelis supported the establishment of a permanent Israeli security zone inside Lebanon.
Israel previously occupied a large security zone in southern Lebanon from 1985 until it pulled out in 2000. The withdrawal followed a protest movement led by mothers of Israeli soldiers known as The Four Mothers.
While the public is frustrated with Israel’s inability to counter the drones that have killed soldiers, there is no pressure to pull troops out of Lebanon now, said Tamar Hermann, a pollster and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute think tank in Jerusalem.
“There is no doubt that there is support for the move in Lebanon,” she said.
Write to Anat Peled at anat.peled@wsj.com
