(Beirut) Hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing against an Israeli military position on Monday, for the first time since the truce with Israel, which promised to retaliate as the two parties accuse each other of violating the fragile ceasefire agreement concluded after two months of war.
Posted at 6:34 a.m.
Updated at 12:04 p.m.
The Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah and who negotiated the truce on its behalf, initially claimed that Israel had violated the ceasefire agreement entered into on “at least 54 occasions”. effective November 27.
He called on the committee overseeing the truce, which includes the United States and France, “to urgently take action and force Israel to stop its violations and withdraw” from Lebanese territory.
The head of French diplomacy, Jean-Noël Barrot, insisted Monday with his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, on “the need for all parties to respect the ceasefire,” his ministry indicated.
The Israeli minister rejected accusations of violation of the ceasefire.
“On the contrary, Israel is enforcing it” in response “to Hezbollah violations that call for immediate action,” he said in a statement.
Hezbollah then said it had carried out fire on an Israeli military position, on “the occupied hills of Kfar Chouba”, a disputed border area claimed by Lebanon. This is a “first defensive response” to Israel’s “violations” of the ceasefire, he said in a statement.
The Israeli army reported “two projectiles”, which did not cause any injuries.
“We promised to act against any violation of the ceasefire, which is exactly what we will do,” declared Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, assuring that a “strong response” would respond to the shots from Hezbollah “towards an army base in Har Dov”, the Israeli name for Shebaa Farms, a neighboring sector of Kfar Chouba.
PHOTO JALAA MAREY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Smoke rises above the Lebanese village of Khiam during an Israeli bombardment, December 2, 2024.
Several Israeli strikes have targeted Lebanon since the ceasefire came into force, without Hezbollah announcing any response so far.
“Freedom of action”
On Monday, an Israeli drone targeted a Lebanese army post in Hermel, in the eastern Bekaa plain, far from the border with Israel, injuring a soldier, according to the army.
A man was also killed by an Israeli drone strike on the village of Marjayoun, near the border in southern Lebanon, the Health Ministry said. According to the Lebanese news agency Ani, he was traveling on a motorcycle.
The Israeli army claimed to have “targeted military vehicles which were operating in the area of a Hezbollah missile manufacturing site in the Bekaa”.
She added that she had “struck terrorist infrastructure sites used for arms smuggling near the Syrian-Lebanese border in the Hermel region”, and indicated that she was “investigating” the circumstances in which the Lebanese soldier was injured.
She also claimed to have carried out “several strikes in response to Hezbollah terrorists” in southern Lebanon.
PHOTO SHIR TOREM, REUTERS
A damaged car in Manara, near the Israeli-Lebanese border, on December 2, 2024.
Sponsored by the United States and France, the ceasefire agreement, which ended two months of open war between Israel and Hezbollah, provides for the withdrawal within 60 days of the Israeli army from Lebanon.
Israeli soldiers entered southern Lebanon on September 30, a week after launching a massive aerial bombardment campaign against the Lebanese Islamist movement.
Hezbollah, for its part, must retreat north of the Litani River, around 30 kilometers from the border, and dismantle its military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
“The presence of Hezbollah agents south of the Litani constitutes a fundamental violation of the agreement and they must move north,” Mr. Saar said on X, emphasizing his country's commitment “to implement successfully implements the ceasefire.
As soon as the agreement was announced, Israel said it reserved “complete freedom of military action” in Lebanon, if Hezbollah “violated” the ceasefire and “attempted to rearm”.
The formation had opened a “support front” for Hamas after the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement against southern Israel, which triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.
