Israel strikes south Lebanon despite framework agreement to end hostilities
The deal aims to pave the way for peace between Israel and Lebanon, who have officially been at war for decades.
Israel renewed strikes on Lebanon on Sunday, Lebanese state media reported, two days after an agreement was signed by the two countries, which a Hezbollah lawmaker warned would lead to “internal conflict”.
The strikes come a day after one person was killed in an Israeli strike on the south, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, with the Israeli military saying it targeted Hezbollah members near its self-proclaimed “security zone”, which is 10 kilometres (6 miles) deep into Lebanon.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported several strikes on Sunday.
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The Israeli army said a soldier “fell in combat” in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah drew the country into the Middle East war in March with rocket fire aimed at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes, and Israel responded with massive airstrikes and an invasion.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told his US counterpart Donald Trump on Saturday that his country “would assume its responsibilities” in implementing the framework agreement, which was signed in Washington on Friday after five rounds of talks.
The deal aims to pave the way for peace between Israel and Lebanon, who have officially been at war for decades.
It conditions an Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese land on Beirut disarming Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deal “historic”.
Hezbollah strongly opposed the talks with Israel from the start and rejects the agreement, with leader Naim Qassem saying on Saturday that the group would treat the deal as “null and void” and describing it as “a surrender of sovereignty”.
His supporters took to the streets on Friday evening to protest the framework.
An AFP correspondent saw on Sunday morning signs that read “Lebanon first” being burned on Beirut’s airport road, which borders the city’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, after previous billboards saying “thank you Iran” were removed.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said on Sunday that “the agreement of humiliation and disgrace signed by the authorities will never see the light of day”.
He added that what “the authorities have done amounts to sedition aimed at pushing the country into chaos and shifting the conflict from one with the enemy to an internal conflict”.
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According to the text of the deal shared by the US State Department, Lebanon and Israel expressed their intent to “conclusively end the conflict, address its underlying causes and… formally conclude any state of war between them”.
Under the agreement, Lebanon’s military will “restore effective sovereign authority over all Lebanese territory, pending the verified disarmament of non-state armed groups”.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, however, has insisted troops will stay in Lebanon so long as Hezbollah remained armed.
