New Delhi, July 21 -- Israel had never occupied the village to begin with.

"Israel wants to sell us and the state empty walnut shells, calling it a pilot zone, when they never even entered it," said Mohammed Nader, the head of Ghandouriyeh's municipal council. The Lebanese army was present, with patrols and checkpoints, but the Israeli military was not, because it had never established a presence in Ghandouriyeh to withdraw from.

The same was true of Froun and Zawtar el-Gharbiya, two other villages in the Bint Jbeil district included in the first wave of the pilot zone. Lebanese security sources confirmed that none of these villages were ever occupied by Israeli forces during the conflict that began in March 2026 and has since killed mo...