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Israel maintains attacks despite US-brokered deal with Lebanon
Israel maintains deadly attacks despite US-brokered deal with Lebanon
A dozen killed as Israeli army also issues new forced displacement orders for several towns and villages in southern Lebanon.
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facebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoIsrael has continued to launch deadly attacks on southern Lebanon despite the two countries striking a new United States-brokered ceasefire agreement.
At least 12 people were killed as Israeli warplanes and drones struck several towns on Friday, Lebanese state media reported. The Israeli military also issued new forced displacement orders.
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The strikes hit residential areas, buildings and roads, while a major demolition was carried out in Bab al-Thaniya. Israeli warplanes also hit close to Jabel Amel Hospital, targeting the Bank Audi area.
Two people were killed in Habboush, including a doctor, reported the state-run National News Agency (NNA). In Doueir, a young man was killed and another suffered serious injuries due to an attack by an Israeli warplane, said NNA.
A strike in the village of Qalawiya Tower killed one person and wounded another, while a drone killed a man sitting in a car in Kfar Reman, added NNA.
Lebanon’s L’Orient Today news outlet reported that five people, including a paramedic, were killed in strikes in Zebdin, in the southern Nabatieh area.
Lebanese news outlets said two people were killed in a drone strike on a motorcycle in the village of Aaba, also in the Nabatieh area. The NNA said the victims were Syrian teenagers and that their father was injured in the attack.
The Israeli army issued two rounds of forced displacement orders covering nine towns and villages.
The attacks followed closely on news that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to a new US-brokered ceasefire.
AdvertisementThe deal was announced by the Trump administration on Thursday, just weeks after a previous agreement to cease hostilities was announced on April 16.
In the interval, however, more than 600 people were killed in Israeli strikes across Lebanon, while the Israeli military expanded its presence in the south of the country. It now occupies about one-fifth of Lebanese territory.
At least 3,558 people have been killed and 10,870 others wounded in Israeli attacks across Lebanon since March 2, according to the latest figures from Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
The chance that the new deal will halt the hostilities appears highly unlikely, with the continued exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel appearing to bear out the pessimism.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced that three of its officers had been injured in southern Lebanon.
On Thursday, “a combat officer was seriously injured as a result of a suspected aerial target strike”, the military said in a post on social media. A second officer was seriously injured on Friday morning and another lightly injured in “an encounter with terrorists” in southern Lebanon. All three were evacuated to receive medical treatment.
Israel’s defence minister said his country’s military campaign would continue, and Israeli media outlet Ynet reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had yet to approve the implementation of the ceasefire.
Lebanon not a ‘bargaining chip’
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem was swift to reject the Israel-Lebanon deal, as he had the agreement in April, dubbing it a “surrender and defeat”.
The Iran-linked armed group said it had launched at least eight attacks against Israeli military positions in southern Lebanon between early Friday morning and Friday afternoon.
Hezbollah said its fighters launched several rocket salvos targeting Israeli vehicles and soldiers on the southeastern outskirts of Zawtar al-Sharqiya, a municipality overlooking the Litani River in the Nabatieh governorate. It launched artillery shells and later, a rocket salvo at Yohmor al-Shaqif, on the northern bank of the Litani River in the Nabatieh District. It also used Ababil suicide drones against Israeli military vehicles at Tell al-Salaa in the town of al-Qantara.
Later on Friday, Hezbollah announced more attacks on Israeli forces. It said it launched several attack drones and artillery fire at Israeli soldiers stationed close to the border and near Beaufort Castle, in the Nabatieh governorate. Israeli forces seized the 12th-century castle earlier in the week.
AdvertisementThe group said it also launched attacks on Israeli army vehicles and soldiers in the border town of Naqoura, as well as struck Israeli Hermes 450 drones with surface-to-air missiles over the western Bekaa region and the Zahrani region, just south of Sidon.
Iran has insisted that a full ceasefire in Lebanon is necessary in order for it to agree to a broader ceasefire with the US and Israel.
Both Iran’s and Hezbollah’s positions have earned criticism from Lebanon’s government.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Friday urged Iran to stop treating his country as a “bargaining chip” in its negotiations with Washington on the Middle East conflict.
“If I may address a word to Iran, it is this: have mercy on our south, stop treating it and its people as merely a bargaining chip to improve the terms of your negotiations,” Salam told a news conference for a UN aid appeal for Lebanon.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun also urged Iran not to interfere in his country, and told Hezbollah that diplomacy was the only solution to the conflict with Israel.
“It’s not your country, it’s our country … It’s not your job to interfere into our country,” Aoun told Iran in a video interview published on Friday by CNN.
“Hezbollah must understand that [there is] no other way but to sit and talk, no other way to solve this problem and to save what’s left except through negotiation and diplomacy,” he added.
Parliament Speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri said the armed group would withdraw from the area south of the Litani River if Israel pulls out and a comprehensive ceasefire is reached.
“I agree to … Hezbollah’s withdrawal from south of the Litani River in parallel with an Israeli withdrawal from the areas it occupies” and “a complete and comprehensive ceasefire without conditions”, Berri, who acts as Hezbollah’s mediator, said in a statement.
He said the rest of the agreement text was “unworthy of discussion”, dismissing the latest ceasefire proposal as a “hybrid” deal.
Berri said the ceasefire should be “complete and comprehensive” without any restrictions or conditions on land, at sea and in the air, and “without bulldozing and demolishing everything that exists.” He was referring to wide areas that have been demolished by Israeli troops.
Berri criticised the creation of “pilot zones” in the agreement as well as calls for a unilateral ceasefire by Hezbollah.
Earlier, politician Najat Aoun Saliba accused Hezbollah of acting against the government and called Tehran’s involvement in the conflict “a threat to Lebanese sovereignty”.
‘Diplomacy only viable path’
Andrea Dessi, an assistant professor at the American University of Rome, told Al Jazeera that any agreement that excludes Hezbollah is destined to fail.
“Any deal that excludes or completely ignores the prerogatives of key actors on the ground, primarily Hezbollah, but of course also Iran behind Hezbollah, is unfortunately destined to fail,” Dessi told Al Jazeera.
He said diplomacy, nonetheless, remains the only viable path.
Advertisement“There is no military solution to all of these issues, including Lebanon, and therefore talks will continue.”
Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas told Al Jazeera that Israel has no coherent strategy for Lebanon and its stated goal of destroying Hezbollah is not achievable.
“If the idea is to eliminate, annihilate, eviscerate, all those terms Netanyahu likes to use bombastically, then effectively you need to occupy the entire state of Lebanon.
“That’s not only not viable and immoral, it’s also just not practical.”
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