Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire

Beirut: The Israeli military said its warplanes have fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.

There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel’s aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said it was violating the ceasefire agreement without providing details. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.

Israeli soldiers on armoured vehicles outside near the Lebanese border in upper Galilee on Thursday.Credit: AP

The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah militants are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border.

The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.

Late on Thursday (Friday AEDT), the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon’s state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details.

Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Displaced residents return to find the rubble of their destroyed house in Baalbek, eastern Lebanon, on Thursday.Credit: AP

An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.

The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire”. It said troops “opened fire towards them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement”.

Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.

A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief media.

The ceasefire agreement ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese militant group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.

Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.

More than 3760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel – over half of them civilians – as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.

Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.

In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.

AP