The Israeli army announced Thursday that it had carried out an airstrike against a Hezbollah installation in southern Lebanon, the first since the start on Wednesday of a still fragile truce.
As soon as it came into force at dawn, tens of thousands of displaced residents rushed to return to their homes in the south and east of the country as well as the southern suburbs of Beirut, strongholds of Hezbollah. The Israeli army, however, imposed a curfew between 5 p.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. Friday in southern Lebanon, after saying it had “opened fire” towards “suspects (…) not respecting the conditions of the ceasefire.” fire”.
Thursday, a fighter plane targeted “a forest area not accessible to civilians” in the town of Baïssariyé, declared the mayor of this Lebanese locality. The Israeli army said it had “identified terrorist activity” in a facility used, according to it, by Hezbollah “to store medium-range rockets in southern Lebanon”, and to have “thwarted the threat” with an airstrike .
Israeli fire also injured two people in the village of Markaba, in southern Lebanon, according to the official Lebanese news agency Ani.
The Lebanese army meanwhile continues its deployment in southern Lebanon in the border regions, but is not “advancing into areas where the Israeli army is still located”.
In the Christian village of Qlaaya, Lebanese soldiers were greeted Wednesday evening by jubilant residents who threw them flowers and rice. “We only want the Lebanese army in Lebanon,” chanted the crowd.
Supported by the United States and France, the ceasefire agreement provides for the withdrawal within 60 days of the Israeli army from Lebanon. Hezbollah must also retreat to the north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers from the border, and dismantle its military infrastructure in southern Lebanon. The agreement includes American and French technical support for the Lebanese army, whose mission promises to be particularly difficult.
Hezbollah “cannot transform itself into a purely political party, because all of its legitimacy and influence are rooted in its role as an armed resistance movement,” judges Imad Salamey, who heads the department of international and political studies at the Lebanese American University (LAU).
But he could show “more flexibility”. The movement could thus unblock the election of a president of which Lebanon has been deprived for more than two years due to political rivalries. Parliament decided on Thursday to meet on January 9 for this election, according to Ani.
