The Guardian / December 2, 2024
At least two people were killed on Monday in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, Lebanese authorities said, as the speaker of Lebanon’s parliament accused Israel of 54 violations of the recent ceasefire deal.
One person was killed in an Israeli air attack on the southern Lebanese town of Marjayoun, about 10 km from the UN-drawn blue line that separates Lebanon from Israel, Reuters reports, citing Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
In a different incident, Lebanon’s state security said an Israeli drone strike had killed a member of its force while he was on duty in Nabatieh, 12 km from the border. State security called it a “flagrant violation” of the truce.
The Lebanese army said an Israeli drone hit an army bulldozer in northeast Lebanon near the border with Syria, wounding one soldier. The National News Agency also reported a fresh Israeli incursion inside Lebanon, near the Mays al-Jabal governmental hospital which is close to Tebnin Castle.
In a statement on social media, Lebanon’s speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, who has acted on behalf of Hezbollah during ceasefire negotiations, said Israel’s actions “represent a clear violation of the articles of the ceasefire agreement” and said they have “exceeded 54 violations in Lebanon.”
Israel has denied this, saying it reserves the right to use force to prevent Hezbollah breaching the ceasefire, claiming armed operatives have been spotted south of the Litani River.
At the end of the 60 day ceasefire period, the agreement states that all Israeli forces should have withdrawn from Lebanon, and that Hezbollah should have retreated north of the Litani River, effectively leaving a buffer zone in southern Lebanon where only the Lebanese army and UN-peacekeeping forces are allowed to deploy.
Earlier Israel’s military issued an order forbidding Lebanese civilians to return to dozens of villages in the south. Tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israelis in the border areas of both countries have been forced to flee their homes by the fighting.
