Israel and Lebanon have accused each other of breaching a ceasefire agreement as the Israeli military said it attacked a Hezbollah facility in southern Lebanon.
The attack on Thursday came hours after the Israeli military said it had fired on people in several areas in southern Lebanon who it said were violating the terms of the ceasefire.
The Lebanese army accused Israel of violating the ceasefire several times on Wednesday and Thursday.
Under the terms of the ceasefire deal, brokered by the US and France, Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces are to gradually withdraw from southern Lebanon over 60 days. The Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers would then deploy throughout the region.
Israel’s air strike was the first attack since the ceasefire began on Wednesday morning, with Lebanese security sources and the Al Jadeed news outlet reporting that the attack took place near Baysariyah, north of the Litani River.
While the deal states that Hezbollah facilities be dismantled south of the Litani River, it does not mention facilities north of the river.
Following the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had directed the army to prepare for war if the ceasefire is violated.
Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said Israel is operating with its own interpretation of the ceasefire agreement.
“What we’ve been able to see and read from the text of the agreement is that it doesn’t include Israel’s right to enforce the ceasefire,” Odeh said.
“In any case, this does stress-test the agreement, which is supposed to be implemented over 60 days, a long time with a lot of room for these sorts of incidents,” she added.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 3,961 people and wounded 16,520 others, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Israeli authorities have said that Hezbollah attacks in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights have killed 45 civilians and at least 73 Israeli soldiers have also been killed during the war.
Forced displacement
Since Israel’s military escalated its bombardment on Lebanon in late September and launched a ground assault in the country’s south in October, more than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced.
After the ceasefire was announced, many displaced people have tried to return to their homes, but the Israeli army has renewed a curfew restricting the movement of residents in southern Lebanon between 5pm (15:00 GMT) and 7am (05:00 GMT).
In the southern coastal city of Tyre, residents who returned to their houses and are facing the extent of Israel’s damage.
Resident Dunia Najdeh, 33, told Al Jazeera, “I wasn’t expecting such damage. We saw the pictures, but the reality is harder.”
Najdeh’s father-in-law, Sleiman Najdeh, 60, explained that Israeli strikes had taken out water and electricity in the city.
“Tyre and Lebanon don’t deserve what happened … but God will compensate us, and Tyre will be even better than it was before,” he said.
Separately on Thursday, Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker said that parliament will meet on January 9, 2025, to elect a president, a post which has been vacant since 2022.
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