Israel fires into southern Lebanon after alleged ceasefire violation

The Israeli military said Thursday it had detected “suspects” in several areas of southern Lebanon, calling it a violation of the ceasefire with Hezbollah.

On Thursday morning, Israeli tank fire hit six areas of the border strip, state media said.

The rounds hit Markaba, Wazzani and Kfarchouba, Khiyam, Taybe and the agricultural plains around Marjayoun – all of which are within two kilometers of the Blue Line demarcating the border between Lebanon and Israel.

The ceasefire was scheduled to take effect at 4:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

It involved a 60-day transition as Israeli troops and Hezbollah soldiers both leave the area north of the border with Israel and south of the Litani River, followed by a permanent cessation of hostilities – including ground clashes, airstrikes and the rebuilding of Hezbollah infrastructure.

The settlement took place the day before the alleged breach.

Lebanese families displaced from their homes near the southern border tried to return to check on their properties. But Israeli troops remain stationed on Lebanese soil in towns along the border.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the army not to allow residents to return to villages near the border.

The speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, Lebanon’s main interlocutor in negotiating the deal, said on Wednesday that residents could return home.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 17 people in central Gaza, medics say

Israeli military strikes killed at least 17 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said, as forces stepped up their shelling of central areas and tanks pushed deeper into the enclave’s north and south.

Six people were killed in two separate airstrikes on a house and near Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, while four others were killed when an Israeli strike hit a motorcycle in Khan Younis, in south.

In Nuseirat – one of eight historic refugee camps in Gaza – Israeli jets carried out several airstrikes, destroying a multi-storey building and hitting roads outside mosques.

At least seven were killed in the strikes, health officials said.

Medics said at least two people, a woman and a child, were killed in tank shelling that hit western areas of Nuseirat, while an airstrike killed five others in a nearby house.

Residents of Rafah, near the border with Egypt, said the tanks had pushed deeper into the northwest area of ​​the city.

There was no Israeli comment on the latest fighting.

Gaza ceasefire negotiations are on hold

Israel’s 13-month campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 44,200 people and displaced nearly the enclave’s entire population at least once, Gaza officials say. Vast areas of the territory are in ruins.

It was triggered by an October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and saw more than 250 hostages taken, Israel said.

Months of efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza have produced little progress, and negotiations are now on hold.

“I hope there will be a ceasefire like what happened in Lebanon… I just want to take my children to see my land, my house, see what they have done to us, I want to live in safety,” he said Amal Abu Hmeid, a displaced woman in Gaza.

“God willing, we will have a truce,” she said.

She told Reuters that life was “beautiful” before the war, but now “there is nothing beautiful, everything is gone”.

Reuters/ABC