Fighting in southern Lebanon eased on Monday after the US -Iran deal to end the wider conflict was announced, but an Israeli drone strike killed one person and authorities warned displaced people not to rush home as Israel said it would keep troops in the south.
Lebanon has suffered the deadliest spillover of the conflict between the US and Iran, with nearly 3,800 people killed and some 1.2 million people uprooted by an Israeli offensive against the Iran-backed Hizbullah group, which opened fire on Israel in support of Tehran on March 2nd.
Pakistan, a key mediator between Tehran and Washington, announced that a deal was struck early on Monday local time that called for “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon”.
The declaration brought relative calm to southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese and foreign security sources. An Israeli drone strike on a car in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Tebnit killed the driver, a Lebanese security source and Lebanese state media said.
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There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike.
The local and foreign security sources earlier said Israel had significantly reduced its attacks, though some artillery fire was reported in southern Lebanese towns and a drone was heard above Beirut and its southern suburbs.
A Hizbullah official told Reuters the group had not carried out any operations since the deal was announced, adding that its position on the ceasefire was linked to Israel adhering to it.
The official, who declined to be named, added that Hizbullah rejects Israeli “freedom of movement” in Lebanon and said Iran delayed signing the deal with the US to monitor Israel’s adherence to the ceasefire in Lebanon.
In a written statement on Monday before Israel’s drone strike, Hizbullah welcomed the US-Iran deal, saying it had resulted in a comprehensive ceasefire including in Lebanon.
The group warned Israel that it would not accept any attacks that violate Lebanon’s sovereignty or target its people, and said Lebanon’s inclusion in the agreement reflected Iran’s commitment to ending the war.
In south Lebanon, municipal councils called on residents to hold off on returning home. Israel’s air force has heavily bombed some towns there over the last three months, and others closer to the frontier are still occupied by Israeli troops.
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz, whose country is not a party to the US-Iran deal, said Israel would not withdraw from security zones in southern Lebanon, Gaza and Syria, and that it would retaliate if Iran attacked Israel due to events in Lebanon.
Katz said the security zone in southern Lebanon would be cleared of local residents and “all terrorist infrastructure, including houses in contact villages”, a reference to Hizbullah.
The Israeli military has been razing villages in southern Lebanon for weeks, saying it is acting against Hizbullah militants embedded in civilian areas of the predominantly Shia Muslim region. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese Shia Muslims are sheltering in other parts of the country.
[ Lebanon’s displaced people: War, poverty and rising tensions on Beirut’s CornicheOpens in new window ]
Lebanese president Joseph Aoun issued a carefully worded statement on Monday in response to the US-Iran deal, saying he was grateful to those who had worked towards de-escalation in Lebanon and appreciated the deal’s recognition of the importance of his country’s stability.
He did not mention Iran or Israel specifically. Aoun previously accused Tehran of using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with Washington.
Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a political ally of Hizbullah and head of the Shia Muslim Amal Movement, said the agreement laid “the foundations for security and stability in the region, including Lebanon”.
Iran, whose Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps established Hizbullah in 1982, had insisted that a Lebanon ceasefire be included as part of any broader deal with the United States.
– Reuters
