At least 15 people were killed and more than 80 injured in a ceasefire attack by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon on Sunday, according to Lebanese health officials.
The Ministry of Health said in a statement that the dead included two women and a Lebanese army soldier. People were reported injured in more than a dozen villages in the border area.
Demonstrators, some carrying Hezbollah flags, held protests in several villages over Israel's failure to withdraw from southern Lebanon by Israel's 60-day deadline to end the Israel-Hezbollah war at the end of November. Tried to enter.
Israel has said it needs to stay longer because the Lebanese army has not deployed to all areas of southern Lebanon to ensure that Hezbollah does not re-establish a presence in the area. The Lebanese army has said it cannot deploy until Israeli forces withdraw.
The Israeli military blamed Hezbollah for inciting Sunday's protests.
It said in a statement that its troops “fired warning shots to remove the threat in several areas where the suspects were identified.” It added that several suspects were arrested in close proximity to Israeli soldiers and are being questioned.
“Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity are non-negotiable, and I am at the highest level to ensure your rights and dignity,” Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement to the people of southern Lebanon on Sunday. Follow up on this issue.”
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He urged them to “exercise self-reliance and trust in the Lebanese Armed Forces.” The Lebanese army said in a separate statement that it was evacuating civilians to some towns in the border region and called on residents to follow military instructions to ensure their safety.
Parliament Speaker Nabiah Berri, whose Amal Movement party is allied with Hezbollah and is serving as a negotiator between the militant group and the United States during cease-fire talks, said Sunday. The bloodshed of “is a clear and urgent call to the international community to act and act immediately. Israel withdraws from the occupied Lebanese territories.”
An Arabic-language spokesman for the Israeli army, Ewche Adre, posted on X that Hezbollah had sent “riots” and was “trying to heat up the situation to hide its position and status in Lebanon and the Arab world. “
He called on residents of the border area on Sunday morning not to try to return to their villages.
The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hannes Plaschart and the head of the UN peacekeeping mission, Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro, called in a joint statement for both Israel and Lebanon that They should comply with their obligations under the Ceasefire Agreement.
“The reality is that the timelines envisioned in the November understanding have not materialized,” the statement said. “As tragically seen this morning, conditions do not yet exist for the safe return of civilians to their villages along the Blue Line.”
Younfel said the threat of further violence undermines the fragile security situation in the region and “the prospects for stability stem from the cessation of hostilities and the establishment of a government in Lebanon.”
It called for the full withdrawal of Israeli troops, the removal of unauthorized weapons and assets south of the Litani River, the redeployment of the Lebanese Army in all of southern Lebanon, and the safe and dignified return of displaced civilians on both sides of the blue. demanded. The line
They were stranded overnight at the Yunfel base near Mes al-Jabal after the Israeli army erected roadblocks on Saturday as they were joining a patrol by peacekeepers. Journalists reported gunshots and booming sounds coming from the base on Sunday morning, and peacekeepers said dozens of protesters had gathered nearby.
In the village of Ita Shab, families were walking around on flat concrete structures looking for the remains of the homes they left behind. There were no Israeli forces present.
“These are our homes,” said Hussain Bajak, one of the returning residents. “Even if they destroy a lot, we will rebuild.”
Bajak added that he believed former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut in September, was indeed still alive.
“I don't know how long we're waiting, another month or two months… but Seyyed will come out and speak,” he said, using an euphemism for Nasrallah.
On the other side of the border in the kibbutz of Manara, Orna Weinberg surveys the devastation of the recent conflict on her neighbors and Lebanese villages on the other side of the border. The sound of gunfire in the distance popped with relief.
“Unfortunately, we have no way to defend our children without harming our children,” Weinberg, 58, said. “It's a tragedy all around.”
Of the 1 million people who fled their homes during the war, about 112,000 Lebanese are homeless.
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