Israel has requested to keep its troops in five posts in southern Lebanon until Feb. 28, a Lebanese official and a foreign diplomat told Reuters on Wednesday, saying that Lebanon was opposed to the move.

Under a cease-fire deal agreed in November between Lebanon and Israel, Israeli troops had until Jan. 26 to withdraw from southern Lebanon. Fighters from Lebanese armed group Hezbollah were to leave the zone and Lebanese troops were to deploy in the area by the same deadline.

That deadline had already been extended until Feb. 18, but a Lebanese official and a foreign diplomat in Lebanon told Reuters on Wednesday that Israel had requested an additional ten-day extension.

There was no immediate response to a request for comment sent to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, but the head of the Israeli military's Northern Command said he believed the terms of the deal would be executed.

"I think we will indeed reposition ourselves next week and the agreement will be implemented," Major General Ori Gordon said on Wednesday, according to Israel's GLZ radio.

Israel's military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on X on Wednesday that Israeli troops remained in Lebanon after the first extension, and ordered Lebanese citizens not to return to their homes in the country's south "until further notice."

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told visiting Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel on Wednesday that the European Union should press Israel to fully withdraw by Feb. 18, according to a statement from Aoun's office.

The cease-fire deal ended more than a year of fighting between Israel's military and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that was playing out in parallel with the Gaza war.

The fighting peaked in a major Israeli air and ground campaign that uprooted more than a million people in Lebanon and left Iran-backed Hezbollah badly weakened, with most of its military command killed in Israeli strikes.

Israeli forces have remained in parts of southern Lebanon and its air force has continued to carry out strikes across the country on what it says are Hezbollah weapons stores or attempts by the group to smuggle arms.

Hezbollah has said it does not accept Israel's justifications for staying in Lebanon and has urged Lebanon's government to ensure the troops leave. The group has not explicitly threatened to resume fighting.