15 protesters killed by Israeli forces after they miss deadline to leave Lebanon in Hezbollah ceasefire deal
26 January 2025, 15:44 | Updated: 26 January 2025, 15:47
Israeli forces have killed at least 15 and injured more than 80 displaced people returning home in Southern Lebanon on the day the troops were supposed to withdraw from Lebanon under a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah.
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Thousands of Lebanese residents returned to their homes in Southern Lebanon on Sunday as Israel was supposed to withdraw from the country as part of a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.
The dead included two women and a Lebanese army soldier, the country's Health Ministry said. People were reported wounded in more than a dozen villages in the border area.
Israel opened fire at the people returning to their homes, who came to protest against Israel’s continued presence within their borders, which violates the 60-day deadline stipulated in a ceasefire agreement that halted the Israel-Hezbollah war in late November.
Israel said that it needs to stay longer because the Lebanese army has not deployed to all areas of southern Lebanon to ensure that Hezbollah does not re-establish its presence in the area.
The Lebanese army said it cannot deploy until Israeli forces withdraw, urging Israel to respect the deadline set out in the ceasefire agreement.
The Israeli army said in a statement that its troops fired warning shots to "remove threats in a number of areas where suspects were identified approaching".
It added that a number of people in proximity to Israeli troops were arrested and were being questioned.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement addressing the people of southern Lebanon on Sunday that "Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity are non-negotiable, and I am following up on this issue at the highest levels to ensure your rights and dignity".
He urged them to "exercise self-restraint and trust in the Lebanese Armed Forces".
The Lebanese army, in a separate statement, said it was escorting civilians into some towns in the border area and called on 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 a mediator between the group and the US during ceasefire negotiations, said that Sunday's bloodshed "is a clear and urgent call for the international community to act immediately and compel Israel to withdraw from occupied Lebanese territories".
An Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israeli military, Avichay Adraee, posted on X that Hezbollah had sent "rioters" and is "trying to heat up the situation to cover up its situation and status in Lebanon and the Arab world".
He called on Sunday morning for residents of the border area not to attempt to return to their villages.
UN special coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and the head of mission of the UN peacekeeping force known as Unifil, Aroldo Lazaro, called in a joint statement for both Israel and Lebanon to comply with their obligations under the ceasefire agreement.
"The fact is that the timelines envisaged in the November Understanding have not been met," the statement said.
"As seen tragically this morning, conditions are not yet in place for the safe return of citizens to their villages along the Blue Line."
Unifil said that further violence risks undermining the fragile security situation in the area and "prospects for stability ushered in by the cessation of hostilities and the formation of a government in Lebanon".
It called for the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops, the removal of unauthorised weapons and assets south of the Litani River, the redeployment of the Lebanese army in all of south Lebanon and ensuring the safe and dignified return of displaced civilians on both sides of the Blue Line.
An Associated Press team was stranded overnight at a base of the UN peacekeeping force known as Unifil near Mays al-Jabal after the Israeli army erected road blocks on Saturday while they were joining a patrol by peacekeepers.
The journalists reported hearing gunshots and booming sounds on Sunday morning from the base, and peacekeepers said that dozens of protesters had gathered nearby.
In the village of Aita al Shaab, families wandered over flattened concrete structures looking for remnants of the homes they left behind. No Israeli forces were present.
"These are our houses," said Hussein Bajouk, one of the returning residents. "However much they destroy, we will rebuild."
Mr Bajouk added that he is convinced that former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs in September, is really still alive.
"I don't know how much we're going to wait, another month or two months... but the Sayyed will come out and speak," he said using an honorific for Nasrallah.
Some 112,000 Lebanese people remain displaced, out of over one million displaced during the war.
