Israeli forces in southern Lebanon opened fire Sunday on protesters demanding their withdrawal in accordance with a ceasefire agreement, killing at least 15 and wounding more than 80, Lebanese health officials reported.
The dead included two women and a Lebanese army soldier, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Injuries were reported in more than a dozen villages in the border area.
The protesters, some carrying Hezbollah flags, attempted to enter several villages to protest Israel's failure to withdraw from southern Lebanon within the 60-day deadline stipulated in a ceasefire agreement that halted the war between Israel and Hezbollah at the end of November.
Israel has said it needs to stay longer because the Lebanese army has not deployed in all areas of southern Lebanon to ensure Hezbollah does not reestablish its presence in the area. The Lebanese army has said it cannot deploy until Israeli forces withdraw.
The Israeli military blamed Hezbollah for provoking Sunday's protests.
It said in a statement that its troops fired warning shots to “eliminate threats in a number of areas where suspects were identified as approaching.” He added that several suspects who were near Israeli troops were detained and were being questioned.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement to the people of southern Lebanon on Sunday that “Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity are not negotiable, and I am following up on this issue at the highest level to guarantee their rights and dignity”.
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He urged them to “exercise restraint and trust in the Lebanese Armed Forces.” The Lebanese army, in a separate statement, said it was escorting civilians to some towns in the border area and asked residents to follow military instructions to ensure their safety.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, whose Amal Movement party is allied with Hezbollah and who served as an interlocutor between the militant group and the United States during ceasefire negotiations, said Sunday's bloodshed “is a clear and urgent for the international community to act immediately and force Israel to withdraw from the occupied Lebanese territories.”
An Arabic-language Israeli army spokesman, Avichay Adraee, posted on
On Sunday morning he asked residents in the border area not to try to return to their villages.
The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the head of mission of the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, Lieutenant General Aroldo Lázaro, called in a joint statement that both Israel and Lebanon comply with its obligations under the ceasefire agreement.
“The fact is that the deadlines provided for in the November Understanding have not been met,” the statement said. “As tragically seen this morning, the conditions are not yet in place for the safe return of citizens to their towns along the Blue Line.”
UNIFIL said further violence risks undermining the fragile security situation in the area and the “prospects for stability ushered in by the cessation of hostilities and the formation of a government in Lebanon.”
He called for the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops, the withdrawal of unauthorized weapons and assets south of the Litani River, the redeployment of the Lebanese army throughout southern Lebanon and the guarantee of the safe and dignified return of displaced civilians on both sides of the Blue River. Line.
An AP team was stranded overnight at a UNIFIL base near Mays al-Jabal after the Israeli army set up roadblocks on Saturday while they joined a peacekeeper patrol. Journalists reported hearing gunshots and bangs Sunday morning from the base, and peacekeepers said dozens of protesters had gathered nearby.
In the village of Aita al Shaab, families wandered over flattened concrete structures searching for remains of the homes they left behind. There were no Israeli forces present.
“These are our homes,” said Hussein Bajouk, one of the returned residents. “No matter how much they destroy, we will rebuild.”
Bajouk added that he is convinced that former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli attack in the southern suburbs of Beirut in September, is indeed still alive.
“I don't know how long we're going to wait, another month or two months… but Sayyed will come out and speak,” he said, using an honorific for Nasrallah.
Across the border, at the Manara kibbutz, Orna Weinberg observed the devastation of the recent conflict on her neighbors and in the Lebanese villages across the border. The sound of gunshots could be heard sporadically in the distance.
“Unfortunately, we have no way to defend our own children without harming theirs,” Weinberg, 58, said. “It's a tragedy for all sides.”
Some 112,000 Lebanese remain displaced, out of a million people who fled their homes during the war.
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