Beirut — At least two people were wounded by Israeli fire in southern Lebanon on Thursday, according to state media, as the Israeli military and Hezbollah accused each other of breaching a ceasefire less than two full days after it took effect.
The Israel Defense Forces 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. The IDF opened fire toward them.”
“The IDF remains in southern Lebanon and will actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement,” the military said.
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Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah member of Lebanon’s parliament accused Israel of violating the ceasefire by firing on civilians returning to their homes in the southern villages.
“The Israeli enemy is attacking those returning to the border villages,” Fadlallah told reporters after a session of the legislature, according to the Reuters news agency. “There are violations today by Israel, even in this form.”
The agreement, brokered by the United States and France, 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. As Israeli forces withdrawal, the buffer zone will be patrolled by Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers moving in to take their place, but it is expected to take weeks, and Israel retained full security control over both sides of the border region as of Thursday.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded by Israeli fire in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. It said Israel fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
While the detailed terms of the ceasefire agreement have not been made public by the U.S., President Biden made clear when he announced it on Tuesday that Israel retained the right to self-defense, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that any violations of the deal would be met with a swift and harsh military response.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes in Lebanon.
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people repeatedly 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.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese militant group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity. The Hamas attack saw the militants kill some 1,200 people in southern Israel and take 250 others hostage.
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, with health officials in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory saying more than 44,280 people have been killed. Most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people have been displaced from their homes, many of them forced to flee multiple times over the last year.
More than 3,760 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, meanwhile, more than 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.
