Photo: Anwar Amro Agence France-Presse Lebanese people walk in the village of Ziqbin, in southern Lebanon, where the destruction is significant.
Agence France-Presse in Beirut and Jerusalem
Published at 8:08 Updated at 11:30
- Middle East
The Israeli army announced Thursday that it had carried out an airstrike against a Hezbollah installation in southern Lebanon, the first since the start, the day before, of a still fragile truce.
The Lebanese army has begun deploying troops and armored vehicles in southern Lebanon, as provided for in the ceasefire agreement that ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah, and whose delicate application it must ensure.
As soon as it came into force, tens of thousands of displaced residents rushed to return to their homes in the south, the southern suburbs of Beirut and eastern Lebanon, Hezbollah strongholds.
The Israeli army, however, imposed a curfew between 5 p.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. Friday in southern Lebanon, after saying it had “opened fire” on “suspects […] not respecting the conditions of the ceasefire.”
On Thursday, a fighter jet targeted “a forest area inaccessible to civilians” in the town of Baissariyeh, Nazih Eid, the mayor of the Lebanese town, told AFP.
The Israeli army said it had “identified terrorist activity” in a facility it said Hezbollah used “to store medium-range rockets in southern Lebanon,” and had “thwarted the threat” with an airstrike.
It added that its forces “remained in southern Lebanon and were acting to enforce” the truce.
Israeli fire also injured two people in the village of Markaba in southern Lebanon, according to the official Lebanese news agency Ani.
The Lebanese army is meanwhile continuing its deployment in southern Lebanon in the border regions, “conducting patrols and setting up checkpoints,” a military source told AFP on Thursday, specifying that the soldiers are not “advancing into the sectors where the Israeli army is still located.”
In the Christian village of Qlaaya, Lebanese soldiers were greeted Wednesday evening by jubilant residents who threw flowers and rice at them.
“We only want the Lebanese army in Lebanon,” chanted the crowd.
Parliament on Thursday extended the mandate of army commander-in-chief Joseph Aoun, who was due to retire in January, by one year.
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The ceasefire agreement aims to end the deadly conflict that began in October 2023 between Israel and Hezbollah, an armed movement allied with Iran, which has displaced 900,000 people in Lebanon and 60,000 in northern Israel.
Hezbollah had opened a “support” front for Hamas against Israel at the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on October 7, 2023 by the unprecedented attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
After months of exchanges of fire on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border, Israel launched a massive bombing campaign on September 23 on the strongholds of the Lebanese movement, followed by ground operations in southern Lebanon, claiming to want to secure its northern border and allow the return of displaced people.
According to Lebanese authorities, at least 3,961 people have been killed since October 2023, most of them since the end of September. On the Israeli side, 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have died in 13 months, according to the authorities.
Sponsored by the United States and France, the ceasefire agreement provides for the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Lebanon within 60 days.
Hezbollah must also withdraw to the north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers from the border, and dismantle its military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
These provisions are based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
The agreement includes American and French technical support for the Lebanese army, whose mission is expected to be difficult.
Israel has said it reserves “complete freedom of military action” in Lebanon, “if Hezbollah violates the agreement and attempts to rearm.”
Hezbollah declared “victory” on Wednesday, saying its fighters “will remain fully prepared to confront […] the attacks of the Israeli enemy.” Although decapitated by Israeli strikes, the Shiite movement remains a key player in Lebanon.
Hezbollah “cannot transform itself into a purely political party, because all its legitimacy and influence are rooted in its role as an armed resistance movement,” said Imad Salamey, who heads the department of international and political studies at the Lebanese American University (LAU). But it could demonstrate “more flexibility.”
The movement could thus unlock the election of a president that Lebanon has been deprived of for more than two years due to political rivalries. Parliament decided on Thursday to meet on January 9 for this election, according to the Ani.
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Life is slowly getting back to normal
Residents of the south continued to return to their devastated towns and villages in a constant stream on Thursday.
In the port city of Tyre, fishermen waited for the green light from the army to resume fishing. Wed.
“When the escalation happened, we stopped working completely and were threatened by the Israelis,” explained one of them, Madhi Istanbuli.
In the southern suburbs of Beirut, Ali Mohammad Abbas came to pay his respects at his brother’s grave in a cemetery devastated by Israeli bombs. “I was waiting for the ceasefire,” says this resident of the Bekaa in the east, who was unable to attend the funeral “because the roads were not safe.”
A little further on, Ahmad Aki Mansour is delighted that his mobile vegetable business is back in business. Especially since it will have to be rebuilt: “the houses of my three sons were destroyed,” he says.