Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem called for a full Israeli troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon, while Israel said its forces struck terrorists there despite a recent ceasefire.
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Tuesday (Jun 23) demanded a scheduled withdrawal of Israeli troops from south Lebanon as authorities said Israeli gunfire killed two people there despite a recent lull in fighting.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun rejected Israel’s occupation of the south and foreign interference in his country’s affairs – an allusion to Hezbollah’s backer Iran – as a fifth round of Israel-Lebanon talks began in Washington.
On Monday, mediators Pakistan and Qatar said that Tehran and Washington had agreed to set up a “de-confliction cell” to limit flare-ups in Lebanon following talks in Switzerland on ending the wider Middle East war, which Tehran has linked to halting the parallel conflict in Lebanon.
“We now have a ceasefire. The withdrawal must take place according to a timetable. Israel has no choice but to fully withdraw from all Lebanese territory, without retaining an inch,” Qassem said, in a televised address.
Deadly clashes between Israel and Hezbollah on Friday and Saturday had rattled the fledgling US-Iran deal, which provides for a cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon.
The fighting in Lebanon has largely paused since Saturday evening.
“Israel withdraws and the Lebanese army deploys exclusively south of the Litani River,” Qassem said, referring to a waterway around 30 kilometres (some 20 miles) from the Israeli border.
“TREACHEROUS ATTACK”
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said two men were killed Tuesday when Israeli soldiers opened fire with machine-guns “while they were standing near an excavator that was unblocking a road” in Nabatieh al-Fawqa.
The health ministry later confirmed the toll.
Hezbollah slammed it as a “blatant” Israeli truce violation and a “treacherous attack”.
Israel’s military said its forces fired warning shots at four alleged Hezbollah militants on a bulldozer and a motorcycle who entered an Israeli-declared “security zone” running around 10 kilometres (six miles) deep inside Lebanon, before “additional fire was conducted in order to remove the threat”.
Separately, it said its forces also “identified a cell of armed terrorists operating” near soldiers in the zone, adding it “struck the terrorists … to remove the threat”.
The NNA also reported that “an enemy drone targeted a parked car” on the outskirts of the town of Baraasheet, without immediately reporting casualties.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, had said earlier on Tuesday that it had not observed any launches, strikes or interceptions “since Sunday, marking more than two days without such activity”.
“SOVEREIGNTY”
Under US pressure, Lebanese officials began direct talks with Israel in April in Washington, with Lebanese authorities seeking to separate the negotiations from the US-Iran deal.
“We accept nothing less than an end to the Israeli occupation and at the same time, the fall of foreign tutelage,” Aoun said, according to his office.
The Lebanese president has previously accused Iran of using his country as a “bargaining chip”.
He expressed hope that the new round of talks would be “decisive” in helping achieve “the full restoration of Lebanon’s sovereignty”.
Aoun’s office also said he spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron over the phone, discussing the situation “in light of the results of the US-Iran negotiations”.
Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/lebanon-israel-hezbollah-ceasefire-violation-6203591
