Israeli strike kills one in south Lebanon

An Israeli strike in Lebanon killed one person yesterday, with Israel saying it targeted a Hezbollah operative, the first such death since its troops withdrew from most of the border area a day earlier.
“An enemy drone struck a vehicle... in the town of Aita al-Shaab,” near the southern border, the official National News Agency (NNA) said, reporting one person killed.
The Israeli military said that an “aircraft operated to remove a threat with a strike on a Hezbollah operative identified handling weaponry” in the same area.
The NNA said one person was wounded in the Wazzani border region after Israeli forces opened fire there. It also reported Israeli automatic weapon fire towards homes near the town of Shebaa.
A November 27 ceasefire deal halted more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah that included two months of all-out war, during which Israel sent troops into Lebanon’s south.
Under the deal, Lebanon’s military was to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period, which was later extended to February 18.
Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres from the border, and dismantle remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Israel announced just before the latest deadline that it would temporarily keep troops in “five strategic points” near the border.
It said the areas were hilltops overlooking the frontier where troops would remain to “make sure there’s no immediate threat”.
Lebanon’s army said yesterday its units were “completing their deployment in all southern border towns” where Israeli troops had withdrawn.
In a statement, it said the Israeli army was “persisting in shirking its commitments and in violating Lebanese sovereignty through ongoing attacks on the security of Lebanon and its citizens”.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz in a phone call yesterday that Israel needed to fully withdraw from south Lebanon, a statement from the presidency said.
“It is necessary to end the Israeli occupation of the remaining points and to complete implementation” of the ceasefire agreement, Aoun said, according to the statement.
He also emphasised “the need to hasten the return of Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel”.
Lebanese leaders said Tuesday they were in contact with ceasefire brokers the US and France to press Israel to fully withdraw, branding its continued presence in the five places an “occupation”.
The UN called the incomplete pullout a violation of a Security Council resolution.
The partial withdrawal has allowed many displaced residents to return to their border villages, many of which were devastated in the war.
Lebanon’s civil defence said yesterday that its teams removed 11 bodies from several border towns and villages, including seven from Mais al-Jabal.