JERUSALEM, (Reuters) – The Israeli army will pull out of Lebanon within a few days, a legislator quoted the military’s chief of staff as saying on Tuesday.

Ran Cohen, a legislator with the left-wing Meretz party, said Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz told him all troops would return to Israel by the Jewish New Year, which begins at sunset on Friday.

“He told me unequivocally that he estimates, that if everything goes well, all Israeli soldiers will be out of Lebanon by the eve of the Jewish New Year,” Cohen told Israel Radio after Halutz appeared before a parliamentary committee.