Israel has been secretly building military outposts in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip as part of a plan to create buffer zones along both borders. The construction has taken place at four or five strategic locations up to about two kilometers, or more than a mile, into Lebanon and at a number of points on the Israeli side of the northern border but outside the security barrier. Israel's push to fortify the buffer zones, which has not been previously reported and was confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon by current and former Israeli officials and reserve soldiers, is based on an assumption that U.S.-brokered ceasefire deals in Lebanon and Gaza are unlikely to endure. Israel believes the two zones -- as well as a third one that the military openly maintains in southern Syria -- are necessary to protect its border communities, which have been devastated by terrorism over the past 16 months of war.