Israeli forces At least 15 people were killed and more than 80 injured in southern Lebanon on Sunday after protesters demanded their removal under ceasefire agreement with HezbollahLebanese authorities said.
Among the dead are two women and a soldier of the Lebanese army, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Demonstrators, some carrying Hezbollah flags, tried to enter several villages to protest Israel's refusal to withdraw from southern Lebanon by the 60-day deadline stipulated by a ceasefire agreement that ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah in late November. .
Israel said on Friday it would keep troops in the south beyond Sunday's deadline because the Lebanese army is not yet fully deployed to ensure Hezbollah does not regain its presence in the area. Meanwhile, Lebanon's U.S.-backed armed forces said they could not deploy until Israeli forces withdrew and accused Israel of delaying the withdrawal.
The Israeli army accused Hezbollah of inciting Sunday's protests.
The statement said its troops fired warning fire to “eliminate threats in a number of areas to which the suspects have been identified.” He added that a number of suspects close to Israeli forces were detained and interrogated.
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Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement Sunday, addressing the people of southern Lebanon, that “Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity are non-negotiable and I am following this issue at the highest level to ensure your rights and dignity.”
He called on them to “exercise restraint and trust the Lebanese Armed Forces.” The Lebanese army said in a separate statement that it was escorting civilians to some towns in the border area and urged residents to follow military instructions to ensure their safety.
Parliament Speaker Nabi Berri, whose Ruh Amal party is a Hezbollah ally and who served as a negotiator between the militants and the US during ceasefire talks, said Sunday's bloodshed “is a clear and urgent call to the international community to act immediately and force Israel to withdraw from the occupied Lebanese territories.”
The Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman, Avichai Adreye, wrote on X that Hezbollah had sent the “demonstrators” and was “trying to heat up the situation to cover up its situation and status in Lebanon and the Arab world.”
He warned the residents of the border not to try to return to their villages.
“The IDF has no intention of targeting you and therefore at this stage you are prohibited from returning to your homes from this line south until further notice. “Anyone who moves south of that line is putting themselves in danger,” he said.
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The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plashart, and the head of the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, Lt. Gen. Arolda Lazaro, called on Israel and Lebanon to honor their commitments under the cease-fire agreement in a joint statement.
“The fact is that the deadlines stipulated by the November agreements have not been met,” the report says. “As can be seen tragically this morning, the conditions for the safe return of citizens to their villages along the “blue line” have not yet been created.
UNIFIL said further violence could undermine the fragile security situation in the area and “prospects for stability offered by the cessation of hostilities and the formation of a government in Lebanon.”
He called for the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, the elimination of unauthorized weapons and assets south of the Litani River, the redeployment of the Lebanese Army throughout southern Lebanon, and the safe and dignified return of displaced civilians on both sides of the Blue Bank. line.
The AP team was stuck overnight at the UNIFIL base near Mays al-Jabal after the Israeli army set up roadblocks on Saturday as they joined a peacekeeping patrol. Journalists reported that gunshots and a crash were heard from the base on Sunday morning, and peacekeepers said that dozens of protesters had gathered nearby.
In the village of Aita el-Shab, families wandered through the flattened concrete structures in search of the remains of the homes they left behind. There were no Israeli forces.
“These are our homes,” said Hussein Bajuk, one of the residents who returned. “As much as they destroy, we will rebuild.”
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Bajuk added that he is convinced that former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in a southern suburb of Beirut in September, is indeed still alive.
“I don't know how long we will wait, another month or two… but Saeed will come out and speak,” he said, using an honorific for Nasrallah.
Across the border, in Kibbutz Manar, Orna Weinberg watched the recent conflict devastate her neighbors and Lebanese villages across the border. In the distance, from time to time, the sound of shooting came.
“Unfortunately, we have no way to protect our own children without harming their children,” Weinberg, 58, said. “It's a tragedy from every angle.”
About 112,000 Lebanese remain displaced, out of more than 1 million who fled their homes during the war.