War Archive 2023 10/08 Monitoring the Israel and Lebanon War

[Saif]

Fresh strikes, clashes in Lebanon after ceasefire calls

Israel conducted strikes against Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold on Monday and battles raged in Lebanon’s south after the Iran-backed militant group claimed 50 attacks on Israeli targets the day before...

www.newagebd.net

Fresh strikes, clashes in Lebanon after ceasefire calls
Agence France-Presse . Beirut 26 November, 2024, 00:46

Palestinians queue to receive a food ration outside a distribution center west of Gaza City, on Monday, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant Hamas group. | AFP photo

Israel conducted strikes against Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold on Monday and battles raged in Lebanon’s south after the Iran-backed militant group claimed 50 attacks on Israeli targets the day before.

Lebanon’s health ministry said 12 people were killed on two locations in Lebanon’s Tyre district.

The ministry, in separate statements, reported a strike on a road near the city of Tyre that left ‘six dead and body parts’ requiring identification, as well as four wounded, while another left ‘six dead and four wounded’ in the town of Maaraka.

The heavy exchanges of fire over the weekend included deadly strikes on Beirut and other areas of Lebanon, and fighting on the ground between Hezbollah militants and Israeli soldiers, particularly around the southern town of Khiam.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah fired 250 projectiles into Israel on Sunday, part of a wave of attacks the militants said had targeted areas including the Ashdod naval base in southern Israel and military sites near Tel Aviv.

The Israeli army warned in a statement on X it would target Hezbollah ‘facilities and interests’ in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Iran-backed group’s main stronghold.

The military later said the air force had ‘conducted intelligence-based strikes on several Hezbollah command centres’ in the area.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported ‘three strikes on the vicinity of Haret Hreik’, and AFPTV images showed thick smoke rising from the southern suburbs.

The strikes followed heavy raids on the area the night before.

Lebanon’s education ministry suspended classes on Monday for schools, technical institutes and private higher education institutions in Beirut and a number of surrounding areas, citing ‘the current dangerous conditions’.

Israeli ground forces have also entered several villages and towns near Lebanon’s southern border, including Khiam, where NNA on Monday reported clashes with Hezbollah fighters.

The escalation came as the United States and the European Union pushed for a truce in a war Lebanon says has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, most of them in the last two months.

In Beirut on Sunday, top EU diplomat Josep Borrell called for an immediate ceasefire, after a US envoy said last week that a deal was ‘within our grasp’.

The envoy, Amos Hochstein, headed to Israel after a visit to Lebanon, where he met with senior Lebanese officials and twice sat down with a key mediator for Hezbollah.

Neither Israel nor the United States has issued official comments on the Israel visit.

Jean-Noel Barrot, the foreign minister of France — which along with the United States has spearheaded the efforts towards a truce — called on Israel and Lebanon on Sunday to seize a ‘window of opportunity’ to negotiate an end to the fighting.

The US news site Axios reported that the parties were close to a deal that would involve a 60-day transition period in which the Israeli army would pull back, the Lebanese army would redeploy near the border and Hezbollah would withdraw its heavy weapons north of the Litani River.

The draft agreement also provides for the establishment of a US-led committee to oversee implementation, as well as US assurances that Israel can take action against imminent threats if the Lebanese military does not, according to Axios.

Israeli media also reported that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was likely to greenlight a US ceasefire proposal.

The war in Lebanon followed nearly a year of limited exchanges of cross-border fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.

The hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have killed at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians on the Israeli side, authorities say.

They have also forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes, which Israel says its campaign in Lebanon intends to rectify.

One displaced resident of Shlomi, an Israeli town near the Lebanese border, said she did not want to see a truce that would allow Hezbollah to regroup.

‘I don’t want a ceasefire, because if they do it along the lines that they’ve announced, we’ll be in the same place in five years,’ said 51-year-old teacher Dorit Sison.

‘I am very pessimistic about this agreement. The only thing I want is for my daughter to sleep well at night, without rocket alerts, and for her not to be afraid of anything.’

Israel has said any ceasefire deal must ensure it still has the ‘freedom to act’ against Hezbollah in the event of violations.

Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir warned reaching a ceasefire deal in Lebanon would be a ‘historic missed opportunity to eradicate Hezbollah’.

‘I understand all the constraints and reasons, and still it is a grave mistake,’ he wrote on X.

The Israeli army, meanwhile, said a deadly weekend strike in the downtown Beirut neighbourhood of Basta had struck ‘a Hezbollah command centre’.

The Lebanese health ministry said the strike killed 29 people and wounded 67.

It had hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn on Saturday, leaving a large crater, AFP journalists at the scene reported.

A senior Lebanese security source said ‘a high-ranking Hezbollah officer was targeted’, without confirming whether or not they had been killed.

But Hezbollah official Amin Cherri said no leader of the movement had been targeted in Basta.​

 

[Saif]

Netanyahu approves Lebanon ceasefire deal ‘in principle’: CNN

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the emerging ceasefire deal with Hezbollah “in principle” during a security consultation with Israeli officials Sunday night, CNN reports citing a source familiar with the matter. Israel still has reservations over some details of the

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Netanyahu approves Lebanon ceasefire deal ‘in principle’: CNN
CNN
Published :
Nov 25, 2024 20:15
Updated :
Nov 25, 2024 20:15

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon on Monday. Bilal Hussein/AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the emerging ceasefire deal with Hezbollah “in principle” during a security consultation with Israeli officials Sunday night, CNN reports citing a source familiar with the matter.

Israel still has reservations over some details of the agreement, which were expected to be transmitted to the Lebanese government on Monday, the source said.

Those and other details are still being negotiated and multiple sources stressed that the agreement will not be final until all issues are resolved.

A ceasefire agreement will also need to be approved by the Israeli cabinet, which has not yet occurred.

Sources familiar with the negotiations said talks appear to be moving positively toward an agreement, but acknowledged that as Israel and Hezbollah continue to trade fire, one misstep could upend the talks.

United States envoy Amos Hochstein said in Beirut last week that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon was “within our grasp,” but that it was ultimately “the decision of the parties.”

He met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, the interlocutor with Hezbollah in the talks and said there had been “constructive” and “very good discussions to narrow the gaps.”

“We have a real opportunity to bring conflict to an end,” he added last week. “The window is now.” He departed Lebanon for Israel on Wednesday to try to bring the negotiations “to a close.”

The US-backed proposal aims to achieve a 60-day cessation of hostilities that some hope could form the basis of a lasting ceasefire.

On Sunday, CNN analyst and Axios reporter Barak Ravid cited a source as saying Hochstein had told the Israeli ambassador to Washington on Saturday that if Israel did not respond positively in the coming days to the ceasefire proposal, he would withdraw from the mediation efforts.

Hochstein’s trip to the region followed Beirut responding “positively” to a US-backed proposal to stop the war, Mikati said last week, adding that large parts of the draft agreement were resolved.

Israel launched a major military offensive in Lebanon in mid-September following months of tit-for-tat border attacks which started on October 8 last year when Hezbollah attacked Israeli controlled territory in solidarity with Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza.

Since then, Israel has launched a ground invasion, killed a string of Hezbollah leaders – including one of its founders, Hassan Nasrallah – and injured thousands of people in an attack featuring exploding pagers.​

 

[Lulldapull]

Hezb has ramped up its rocket and drone attacks on Israel and blunted the IDF offensive in Khayyam city inflicting significant losses on the IDF armored core.

More than a 100 Israeli's have died in the last 24 hrs and Israel's lost another dozen Merkava tanks and APC's to Hezb ATGM fire and drone strikes.

 

[Sharma Ji]

Hezb has ramped up its rocket and drone attacks on Israel and blunted the IDF offensive in Khayyam city inflicting significant losses on the IDF armored core.

More than a 100 Israeli's have died in the last 24 hrs and Israel's lost another dozen Merkava tanks and APC's to Hezb ATGM fire and drone strikes.

proofs do

footaze dikhain pleaje

 

[Lulldapull]

proofs do

footaze dikhain pleaje

Oh bhai there is the Lebanon/ Israel war thread on the other forum. More than 300 pages long.

So much info on that since Oct 7th last year when Hezb started its campaign against Israel.

 

[Sharma Ji]

Oh bhai there is the Lebanon/ Israel war thread on the other forum. More than 300 pages long.

So much info on that since Oct 7th last year when Hezb started its campaign against Israel.

wait kar oye

Dholan dekho kya karda

he gon end those wars, bro ! .. all of them

 

[Saif]

Netanyahu says ready to implement Israel-Lebanon ceasefire

Ceasefire accord goes to full Israeli cabinet later

www.thedailystar.net

Netanyahu says ready to implement Israel-Lebanon ceasefire

Photo: Collected
​

• Ceasefire accord goes to full Israeli cabinet later​
• Hezbollah has been set back decades, Israeli PM says​
• Israel has shaken Beirut 'to its core', says Netanyahu​
• Israel demands UN enforcement, zero tolerance for infractions​

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he was ready to implement a ceasefire deal with Lebanon and would respond forcefully to any violation by Hezbollah, declaring Israel would retain "complete military freedom of action".

In a television address, Netanyahu said he would put the ceasefire accord to his full cabinet later in the evening. Israeli TV reported that the more restricted security cabinet had earlier approved the deal.

The accord, clearing the way for an end to a conflict that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year, was brokered by the United States and France and was expected to take effect on Wednesday.

"We will enforce the agreement and respond forcefully to any violation. Together, we will continue until victory," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu said there were three reasons to pursue a ceasefire: to focus on the threat from Iran; replenish depleted arms supplies and give the army a rest; and to isolate Hamas, the militant group that triggered war in the region when it attacked Israel from Gaza last year.

"In full coordination with the United States, we retain complete military freedom of action. Should Hezbollah violate the agreement or attempt to rearm, we will strike decisively."

Netanyahu said Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and allied to Hamas, was considerably weaker than it had been at the start of the conflict.

"We have set it back decades, eliminated ... its top leaders, destroyed most of its rockets and missiles, neutralized thousands of fighters, and obliterated years of terror infrastructure near our border," he said.

"We targeted strategic objectives across Lebanon, shaking Beirut to its core."

US President Joe Biden was set to deliver remarks at the White House at 2:30pm EST (1930 GMT).

ISRAEL RAMPS UP AIRSTRIKES

Despite the diplomatic breakthrough, hostilities raged as Israel dramatically ramped up its campaign of airstrikes in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, with health authorities reporting at least 18 killed.

There was no indication that a truce in Lebanon would hasten a ceasefire and hostage-release deal in devastated Gaza, where Israel is battling Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The Lebanon ceasefire agreement requires Israeli troops to withdraw from south Lebanon and Lebanon's army to deploy in the region, officials say. Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the border south of the Litani River.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the Lebanese army would be ready to have at least 5,000 troops deployed in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops withdraw, and that the United States could play a role in rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by Israeli strikes.

Not everyone in Israel supports a ceasefire. Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a right-wing member of Netanyahu's government, said on social-media platform X the agreement does not ensure the return of Israelis to their homes in the country's north and that the Lebanese army did not have the ability to overcome Hezbollah.

"In order to leave Lebanon, we must have our own security belt," Ben-Gvir said.

Israel demands effective UN enforcement of an eventual ceasefire with Lebanon and will show "zero tolerance" toward any infraction, Defence Minister Israel Katz said earlier on Tuesday.

In the hours before the announcement, Israeli strikes smashed more of Beirut's densely-populated southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold. The Israeli military said one barrage of strikes had hit 20 targets in the city in just 120 seconds, killing at least seven people and injuring 37, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

Israel issued its biggest evacuation warning yet, telling civilians to leave 20 locations. Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the air force was conducting a "widespread attack" on Hezbollah targets across the city.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah has kept up rocket fire into Israel.

The UN rights chief voiced concern about the escalation of bloodshed in Lebanon and his office said nearly 100 people had been reported killed by Israeli airstrikes in recent days, including women, children and medics.

Israel has dealt Hezbollah massive blows since going on the offensive against the group in September, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and other top commanders, and pounding areas of Lebanon where the group holds sway.

Over the past year, more than 3,750 people have been killed in Lebanon and over one million have been forced from their homes, according to Lebanon's health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures.

Hezbollah strikes have killed 45 civilians in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. At least 73 Israeli soldiers have been killed in northern Israel, the Golan Heights and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli authorities.​

 

[Lulldapull]

Iran needs to launch a huge attack on the Israeli's and demolish whatever's fukkin left they're holding onto for dear life. Iran must break Israel's back and leave it crippled before anything gets on the paper.

Its a great initiative to demolish long held taboos like invincibility, jhootta Semite religion and Hollywood filmain being shoved down our throat narratives.

Iran's totally in a position of strength and should demolish all this make belief world of gypsy nonsense!

 

[Krishna with Flute]

Israel Targeted 20 Hezbollah targets in 120 second. releases the video.

MSN

 

[Saif]

Thousands in Lebanon head home as Israel-Hezbollah truce takes hold

Tens of thousands of Lebanese displaced by the war between Israel and Hezbollah headed back to their devastated towns and villages as a ceasefire took hold on Wednesday...

www.newagebd.net

Thousands in Lebanon head home as Israel-Hezbollah truce takes hold
Agence France-Presse . Beirut, Lebanon 28 November, 2024, 00:56

A woman looks at the rubble in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Wednesday, as people returned to the area to check their homes after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. | AFP photo

Tens of thousands of Lebanese displaced by the war between Israel and Hezbollah headed back to their devastated towns and villages as a ceasefire took hold on Wednesday.

Under the terms of the deal that brought the war to a halt, the Lebanese military started reinforcing its presence in the country’s south, where Hezbollah has long held sway.

The war escalated after nearly a year of cross-border fire initiated by the militant group in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, whose attack on Israel in October last year sparked the war in Gaza.

It killed thousands of people in Lebanon and triggered mass displacement on both sides of the border.

Israel shifted its focus from Gaza to Lebanon in September to secure its northern border from Hezbollah attacks and dealt the movement a series of heavy blows.

The Iran-backed group has emerged from the war significantly weakened and still mourning the killing in an Israeli air raid of its long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said on Wednesday that his group was cooperating on the Lebanese army’s deployment in south Lebanon.

There is ‘full cooperation’ with the Lebanese state in strengthening the army’s deployment, he said, adding that the group has ‘no visible weapons or bases’ there and that ‘nobody can make residents leave their villages’.

The road from the Lebanese capital to the south has been congested since the early hours, with thousands of people heading home.

AFP journalists saw cars and minibuses packed with people carrying mattresses, suitcases and blankets, with some honking their horns and singing in celebration, with Hezbollah supporters declaring the truce a victory.

‘What we feel is indescribable,’ said one Lebanese driver on the road to the south. ‘The people have won!’

Others, however, voiced quiet desolation.

Returning to his home in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, Ali Mazraani said he was shocked by the extent of the devastation from the raids.

‘Is this really Nabatiyeh?’ he said. ‘All our memories of Nabatiyeh have disappeared, and we can’t recognise our own town.’

In Lebanon, more than 9,00,000 people fled their homes in recent weeks, according to the UN, as Israel pounded the country, focusing in particular on areas where Hezbollah holds sway.

Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri called on the displaced to go back to their homes despite the devastation.

‘I invite you to return to your homes return to your land,’ said Berri, who led mediation efforts on behalf of his allies in Hezbollah.

Prime minister Najib Mikati urged Israel to respect the terms of the truce and said Lebanon was turning the page on ‘one of the most painful phases that the Lebanese have lived in their modern history’.

Lebanon says at least 3,823 people were killed in the country since exchanges of fire across the border began in October 2023, most of them in recent weeks.

On the Israeli side, the hostilities with Hezbollah have killed at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians, authorities there say.

The final hours before the truce took hold at 4:00am (0200 GMT) on Wednesday were among the most violent particularly for Beirut, with Israeli strikes hitting areas including the busy commercial district of Hamra.

Hezbollah, too, continued to claim attacks on Israel all the way up to the start of the truce.

The Israeli and Lebanese militaries have both called on residents of frontline Lebanese villages to avoid returning home immediately.

Hezbollah-backer Iran welcomed the end of what it called Israel’s aggression in Lebanon, while Hamas said it was ready for a truce in Gaza.

The truce in Lebanon, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, would permit Israel to redirect its efforts back to Gaza, where it has been at war with Hamas since October of last year.

‘When Hezbollah is out of the picture, Hamas is left alone in the fight. Our pressure on it will intensify,’ Netanyahu said, adding that Israel would also focus on ‘the Iranian threat’.

Iran is the main backer of both Hezbollah and Hamas and has fired two barrages of missiles and drones at Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, in response to attacks attributed to Israel.

US president Joe Biden announced the ceasefire agreement on Tuesday.

Under the deal, Israeli forces will hold their positions but ‘a 60-day period will commence in which the Lebanese military and security forces will begin their deployment towards the south’, a US official said.

Then Israel will begin a phased withdrawal without a vacuum forming that Hezbollah or others could rush into, the official said.

The United States is Israel’s key ally and military backer, and Biden hailed the deal as ‘good news’ and a ‘new start’ for Lebanon.

He said that the United States, with the support of France and other allies, would help to ensure the deal is implemented.

Netanyahu thanked Biden for his involvement in brokering the deal, under whose terms Israel will maintain freedom to act against Hezbollah should it pose any new threat.

On Wednesday, an AFP journalist saw Lebanese troops and vehicles deploying in two areas of south Lebanon.

‘The army has begun reinforcing its presence in the South Litani sector and extending the state’s authority in coordination with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon,’ the military said in a statement, referring to areas south of the Litani River in southern Lebanon.

While the mood in Lebanon was of joy tempered by devastating loss, in Israel there was no indication of a return en masse of the 60,000 people forced to flee their homes by Hezbollah’s fire.​

 

[Saif]

Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire holds in first hours, Lebanese civilians return to south

A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah held on Wednesday after both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the US and France, a rare victory for diplomacy in the Middle East wracked by two wars for over a year. Lebanon's army, tasked with ensuring the ceasefire lasts, said

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire holds in first hours, Lebanese civilians return to south
REUTERS
Published :
Nov 27, 2024 17:50
Updated :
Nov 27, 2024 18:29

A man waves a Lebanese flag as he stands amidst the rubble of a building destroyed in Israeli strikes, after a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah took effect at 0200 GMT on Wednesday after US President Joe Biden said both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the United States and France, in Tyre, Lebanon, November 27, 2024. Photo : REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah held on Wednesday after both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the US and France, a rare victory for diplomacy in the Middle East wracked by two wars for over a year.

Lebanon's army, tasked with ensuring the ceasefire lasts, said it was preparing to deploy to the south of the country, a region Israel heavily bombarded in its battle against the Iran-backed militant group, along with eastern cities and towns and Hezbollah strongholds in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The military asked that residents of border villages delay returning home until the Israeli military, which has waged war against Hezbollah on several occasions and pushed around 6 km (4 miles) into Lebanon, withdraws.

Israel said it identified Hezbollah operatives returning to areas near the border and had opened fire to prevent them from coming closer. There were no signs that the incident would undermine the ceasefire.

The agreement, which promises to end a conflict across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year, is a major achievement for the US in the waning days of President Joe Biden's administration.

The deal is likely to enable Israel to focus more closely on the conflict in shattered Gaza, where it has vowed to destroy its long-time enemy the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which led the Oct 7, 2023, attacks on Israeli communities.

"Force must give way to dialogue and negotiation. This has now been achieved in Lebanon, and it must happen as soon as possible in the Gaza Strip," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France Info radio.

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the group "appreciates" Lebanon's right to reach an agreement which protects its people, and hopes for a deal to end the Gaza war.

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati appealed to Israel to fully commit and "withdraw from all the regions and positions it occupied", hours after the truce between Israel and Hezbollah was activated.

Cars and vans piled high with mattresses, suitcases and even furniture streamed through the southern port city of Tyre, which was heavily bombed in the final days before the ceasefire, heading south. Fighting had escalated over the past two months, forcing hundreds of thousands of Lebanese from their homes.

Israel has said its military aim had been to ensure the safe return of about 60,000 Israelis who fled from their communities along the northern border when Hezbollah started firing rockets at them in support of Hamas in Gaza.

In Lebanon, some cars flew national flags, others honked, and one woman could be seen flashing the victory sign with her fingers as people started to return to homes they had fled.

Many of the villages the people were likely returning to have been destroyed.

Hussam Arrout, a father of four who said he was displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs but originally from the southern border village of Mays al-Jabal, said he was itching to return to his ancestral home.

"The Israelis haven't withdrawn in full, they're still on the edge. So we decided to wait until the army announces that we can go in. Then we'll turn the cars on immediately and go to the village," he said.

'PERMANENT CESSATION'

Announcing the ceasefire, Biden spoke at the White House on Tuesday shortly after Israel's security cabinet approved the agreement in a 10-1 vote.

"This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities," Biden said. "What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed to threaten the security of Israel again."

Israel will gradually withdraw its forces over 60 days as Lebanon's army takes control of territory near its border with Israel to ensure that Hezbollah does not rebuild its infrastructure there after a costly war, Biden said.

He said his administration was also pushing for an elusive ceasefire in Gaza and that it was possible that Saudi Arabia and Israel could normalize relations.

Egypt and Qatar, which along with the United States, have tried unsuccessfully to mediate a ceasefire in Gaza, welcomed the Lebanon truce. Qatar's foreign ministry said on Wednesday it hoped it would lead to a similar agreement to end the Gaza war.

Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas as well as the Houthi rebels that have attacked Israel from Yemen, said it welcomed the ceasefire.

Hezbollah has not formally commented on the ceasefire but senior official Hassan Fadlallah told Lebanon's Al Jadeed TV that while it supported the extension of the Lebanese state's authority, the group would emerge from the war stronger.

Israel has dealt a series of blows to Hezbollah, notably the assassination of its veteran leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday Israeli forces fired at several vehicles with suspects to prevent them from reaching a no-go zone in Lebanese territory and the suspects moved away.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said he instructed the military to "act firmly and without compromise" should it happen again.

Netanyahu said the ceasefire would allow Israel to focus on the threat from Iran, give the army an opportunity to rest and replenish supplies, and isolate Hamas.

Hezbollah was considerably weaker than it had been at the start of the conflict, he added.

"We have pushed them decades back. We eliminated Nasrallah, the axis of the axis. We have taken out the organization's top leadership, we have destroyed most of their rockets and missiles," said Netanyahu.​

 

[Lulldapull]

Iran should trash all these agreements and continue what it’s been doing! I guess that goes without saying.

The Israelis asked for this ceasefire cuz they were looking at escalating beyond their pay grade.

Irans trashed Israel’s invincibility

 

[Saif]

‘We lost a generation’

As the skies fell quiet over Beirut this week, displaced Lebanese piled into cars and headed south for home, but any return to normality remains elusive given their economy was already in freefall even before war broke out last year and no solutions seem at hand.

www.thedailystar.net

‘We lost a generation’
Lebanon’s education crisis deepens as half of public schools converted to shelters

As the skies fell quiet over Beirut this week, displaced Lebanese piled into cars and headed south for home, but any return to normality remains elusive given their economy was already in freefall even before war broke out last year and no solutions seem at hand.

A ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah came into effect at dawn on Wednesday after conflict escalated in September with Israel launching heavy bombing raids across the country and sending troops into south Lebanon.

Although the fighting has stopped - at least for now - hard days lie ahead for a worn-out people who were already reeling from multiple crises since the economic implosion of 2019.

The crisis has hit education especially hard.

At least 500 public schools, roughly one in two in what is a badly under-funded sector, were converted into shelters in recent months to house many of the 1.2 million people fleeing the fighting, Save the Children said last month.

And 2024 marks the sixth straight year that Lebanon's 1.5 million children faced significant disruptions to schooling, worsening their long-term physical and mental outlook, it said.

Ameer Shweekh is one of those children. Forced to flee his home in the southern city of Tyre two months ago, the 13-year-old got a place at the Omar El Zeeny public school in a working-class neighbourhood in Beirut when the school year started this month.

Shweekh said he still logs onto online classes from his former school when he finishes his new studies each afternoon. But he knows he is falling behind, especially in coding - there are simply no computers at his new school.

The education community has only received 19 percent of the donor funding it needs this year, said Janhvi Kanoria, a director at Education Above All (EAA), a Qatar-based global education foundation.

"We have a lost generation in Lebanon," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.​

 

[Saif]

Lebanon army deploys amid Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire

Lebanon’s military deployed troops and tanks across the country’s south on Thursday as a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war largely held for a second day.

www.newagebd.net

Lebanon army deploys amid Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire
Agence France-Presse . Beirut, Lebanon 28 November, 2024, 22:56

Lebanese army soldiers man a checkpoint in southern Lebanon's Marjayoun area after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. | AFP photo

Lebanon’s military deployed troops and tanks across the country’s south on Thursday as a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war largely held for a second day.

The truce ended a war that began a day after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, killing thousands in Lebanon and sparking mass displacements in both Lebanon and Israel.

Israel shifted its focus from Gaza to Lebanon in September to secure its northern border from Hezbollah attacks, dealing the Iran-backed Shia Muslim movement a series of staggering blows.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers were to become the only armed presence in south Lebanon, where Hezbollah has long held sway.

A Lebanese army source said its forces were ‘conducting patrols and setting up checkpoints’ south of the Litani River without advancing into areas where Israeli forces were still present.

In the border village of Qlaaya, residents threw rice and flowers to celebrate the arrival of Lebanese soldiers.

‘We only want the Lebanese army,’ chanted the residents of the Christian-majority village, as they clapped and cheered for the troops and waved the Lebanese red, white and green flag.

Since the ceasefire took effect on Wednesday, tens of thousands of Lebanese who fled their homes have headed back to their towns and villages, only to find scenes of devastation.

‘Despite all the destruction and the sorrow, we are happy to be back,’ said Umm Mohammed Bzeih, a widow who fled with her four children from the southern village of Zibqin two months ago.

‘I feel as if our souls have returned,’ she said, visibly exhausted as she swept up the shattered glass and pieces of stones that carpeted the floor.

While there was joy around Lebanon that the war has ended, it will take the country a long time to recover.

Even prior to the conflict, it had been wracked for years by political and economic crisis, with World Bank data from earlier this year indicating poverty had tripled in a decade.

On Thursday, there was a glimmer of hope as the official National News Agency reported parliament would meet to elect a president on January 9, following a two-year vacuum.

Lebanon is deeply divided along political and sectarian lines, with Hezbollah long dominating the Shia Muslim majority.

Hezbollah, the only armed group that refused to surrender its weapons following the 1975-90 civil war, built its popularity by providing health and education services.

It has maintained a formidable arsenal, supplied chiefly by Iran, which is widely regarded as more powerful than that of the Lebanese army.

While it did not take part in any direct talks for the ceasefire, which was brokered by the United States and France, it was represented by ally parliament speaker Nabih Berri.

Hezbollah proclaimed on Wednesday that it had achieved ‘victory’ in the war against Israel, after the truce took effect.

‘Victory from God almighty was the ally of the righteous cause,’ it said, adding its fighters would ‘remain in total readiness to deal with the Israeli enemy’s ambitions and its attacks’.

But the war saw Israel deal Hezbollah a string of unprecedented blows, key among them the killing in September of its long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Other losses suffered by the group include the death of a string of other top commanders, as well as the killing of the man touted to succeed Nasrallah, Hashem Safieddine.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said his group was cooperating on the army’s deployment in the south.

There is ‘full cooperation’ with the Lebanese state in strengthening the army’s deployment, he said, adding the group had ‘no visible weapons or bases’ but ‘nobody can make residents leave their villages’.

In northern Israel, which has come under steady attack from Hezbollah for more than a year, there was hope tinged with scepticism over whether a truce can last.

Nissim Ravivo, a 70-year-old in the coastal city of Nahariya, just 10 kilometres from the border with Lebanon, voiced disappointment.

‘It’s a shame, we should have continued for at least another two months and finished the job,’ he said. ‘We still don’t feel safe and we are not happy about it.’

Lebanon says at least 3,823 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most of them in recent weeks.

On the Israeli side, the hostilities with Hezbollah have killed at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians, authorities there say.

Under the ceasefire deal, Israeli forces will hold their positions but ‘a 60-day period will commence in which the Lebanese military and security forces will begin their deployment towards the south’, a US official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Then Israel will begin a phased withdrawal without a vacuum forming that Hezbollah or others could rush into, the official said.

The Israeli and Lebanese militaries have both called on residents of frontline villages to avoid returning home immediately.

‘We control positions in the south of Lebanon, our planes continue to fly in Lebanese airspace,’ Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said.

‘We control positions in the south of Lebanon, our planes continue to fly in Lebanese airspace.’​

 

[Lulldapull]

We got 1.5 million children who ain’t goin to school for years now just in Karachi alone…….lol.

 

[Saif]

Halt truce breaches

Top Lebanese officials have urged Washington and Paris to press Israel to uphold a ceasefire, after dozens of military operations on Lebanese soil that Beirut has deemed violations, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters yesterday.

www.thedailystar.net

Halt truce breaches
Lebanon asks US, France as 9 killed in Israeli strikes on southern villages

Top Lebanese officials have urged Washington and Paris to press Israel to uphold a ceasefire, after dozens of military operations on Lebanese soil that Beirut has deemed violations, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters yesterday.

Deadly Israeli strikes on south Lebanon and Hezbollah rocket launches on an Israeli military post have put a US-brokered ceasefire between the two in an increasingly fragile position less than a week after it came into effect.

Nine people were killed in the Israeli strikes on villages in southern Lebanon later on Monday, after Israel said it was taking aim at dozens of Hezbollah targets in retaliation for an attack claimed by the militant group during a fragile ceasefire.

Hezbollah said it had launched an attack targeting an Israeli position in "the occupied hills of Kfar Shouba", in a disputed part of the border area between Israel and Lebanon.

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a close Hezbollah ally who negotiated the deal on behalf of Lebanon, spoke to officials at the White House and French presidency late Monday and expressed concern about the state of the ceasefire, the sources said.

Neither the French presidency nor the foreign ministry were immediately available to comment. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot spoke to his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar on Monday, saying both sides should adhere to the ceasefire.​

 

[Saif]

Lebanon army accuses Israel of ceasefire delay

The Lebanese army on Saturday said it was ready to deploy its forces in the country’s south, accusing Israel of ‘procrastination’ in its withdrawal in time for a deadline the following day.

www.newagebd.net

Lebanon army accuses Israel of ceasefire delay
Agence France-Presse . Beirut, Lebanon 25 January, 2025, 22:21

The Lebanese army on Saturday said it was ready to deploy its forces in the country’s south, accusing Israel of ‘procrastination’ in its withdrawal in time for a deadline the following day.

Under the terms of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire that came into effect on November 27, the Lebanese army is to deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdraws over a 60-day period that ends Sunday.

Hezbollah is to pull back its forces north of the Litani River—about 30 kilometres from the border—and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

‘There has been a delay at a number of stages as a result of the procrastination in the withdrawal from the Israeli enemy’s side,’ the army said in a statement, confirming it was ‘ready to continue its deployment as soon as the Israeli enemy withdraws’.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Friday said the military’s withdrawal would continue beyond the Sunday deadline stipulated by the deal.

‘The withdrawal process is conditional upon the Lebanese army deploying in southern Lebanon and fully and effectively enforcing the agreement, with Hezbollah withdrawing beyond the Litani River,’ a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.

‘Since the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the Lebanese state, the gradual withdrawal process will continue in full coordination with the United States.’

The Lebanese army accusation came after UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres on January 17 called for Israel to end its military operations and “occupation” in the south.

Lebanon’s new president Joseph Aoun said one week ago that Israel must ‘withdraw from occupied territories in the south within the deadline set by the agreement reached on November 27’.

Lebanon’s army urged people to ‘be cautious in heading back to the southern border areas, due to the presence of mines and suspicious objects left behind’ by Israeli forces.

The fragile truce took effect after two months of full-blown war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah and has been marked by accusations of violations from both sides.

Hezbollah began a low-intensity exchange of fire in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attack by its Palestinian ally Hamas on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

Israel escalated its campaign against Hezbollah in September, launching a series of devastating blows against the group’s leadership structure that saw its long-time chief Hassan Nasrallah killed in an air strike on Beirut that month.

Hezbollah on Thursday said that ‘any violation of the 60-day deadline will be considered a flagrant violation of [ceasefire] agreement, an infringement on Lebanese sovereignty and the occupation entering a new chapter’.

This would require the Lebanese state to act using ‘all means necessary... to restore the land and wrest it from the clutches of the occupation,’ Hezbollah said in a statement.

A committee composed of Israeli, Lebanese, French and US delegates and a representative of UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL is tasked with ensuring any ceasefire violations are identified and dealt with.

The UN peacekeeping force has reported Israeli violations of the ceasefire terms.

Guterres also said peacekeepers had found more than 100 weapons caches belonging ‘to Hezbollah or other armed groups’.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli fire kills 15 on deadline for Lebanon withdrawal

Israeli troops opened fire in south Lebanon on Sunday, killing 15 residents and a Lebanese soldier, health officials said as hundreds of people tried to return to their homes on the deadline for Israel to withdraw.

www.newagebd.net

Israeli fire kills 15 on deadline for Lebanon withdrawal
Agence France-Presse . Burj al Muluk, Lebanon 26 January, 2025, 22:44

Rescuers in Chaqra carry an injured person shot by Israeli soldiers after he allegedly tried to walk toward Mais al-Jabal in southern Lebanon on Sunday. | AFP photo

Israeli troops opened fire in south Lebanon on Sunday, killing 15 residents and a Lebanese soldier, health officials said as hundreds of people tried to return to their homes on the deadline for Israel to withdraw.

Israel was all but certain to miss Sunday’s deadline, which is part of a ceasefire agreement that ended its war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group two months ago.

The deal that took effect on November 27 said the Lebanese army was to deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period.

That period ends on Sunday.

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli forces opened fire on ‘citizens who were trying to return to their villages’, killing 15 and wounding 83.

The ministry’s toll includes a soldier from the Lebanese army, which also announced his death and said Israeli fire had wounded another soldier.

AFP journalists said convoys of vehicles carrying hundreds of people, some flying yellow Hezbollah flags, were trying to get to several villages despite the Israeli military’s continued presence.

‘We will return to our villages and the Israeli enemy will leave,’ even if it costs lives, said Ali Harb, a 27-year-old trying to go to Kfar Kila.

Residents could also be seen heading on foot and by motorbike towards the devastated border town of Mays al-Jabal, where Israeli troops are still stationed.

Some held up portraits of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, while women dressed in black carried photos of family members killed in the war.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee had issued a message earlier on Sunday to residents of more than 60 villages in southern Lebanon telling them not to return.

Speaking from the border town of Aita al-Shaab, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah hailed in a television appearance ‘the return of residents in spite of the threats and warnings’.

Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, the former army chief who took office earlier this month after a two-year vacancy in the post, called on residents to keep a cool head and ‘trust the Lebanese army’, which he said wanted ‘to ensure your safe return to your homes and villages’.

On Saturday, the army had said the delay in implementing the agreement was the ‘result of the procrastination in the withdrawal from the Israeli enemy’s side’.

A joint statement from the UN special coordinator for Lebanon and the head of the UN peacekeeping mission on Sunday acknowledged ‘that the timelines envisaged in the November Understanding have not been met’.

‘As seen tragically this morning, conditions are not yet in place for the safe return of citizens to their villages along the Blue Line,’ the statement said, referring to the border. It urged residents ‘to exercise caution’.

Israeli forces have left coastal areas of southern Lebanon, but are still present in areas further east.

The ceasefire deal stipulates that Hezbollah pull back its forces north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometres from the border — and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

But Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday that the ‘agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the Lebanese state’, so the military’s withdrawal would continue beyond the Sunday deadline.

The Lebanese army said it was ‘ready to continue its deployment’ as soon as Israel left.

Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati called Sunday for the backers of the ceasefire agreement — a group that includes the United States and France — ‘to force the Israeli enemy to withdraw’.

Lebanese state media have reported that Israeli forces have carried out demolitions in villages they control.

Aoun spoke on Saturday with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron about the ‘need to oblige Israel to respect the terms of the deal’, adding it must ‘end its successive violations, including the destruction of border villages’.

Macron’s office said the French president had called on all parties to the ceasefire to honour their commitments as soon as possible.

The fragile truce has generally held, even as the warring sides have repeatedly traded accusations of violations.

The deal ended two months of full-scale war that had followed nearly a year of low-intensity exchanges.

Hezbollah began trading cross-border fire with the Israeli army the day after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by its Palestinian ally Hamas, which triggered the war in Gaza.

Israel’s campaign delivered a series of devastating blows against Hezbollah’s leadership including its long-time chief Nasrallah.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli forces kill 15 people in south Lebanon as residents try to return, Lebanese authorities say

Israeli forces killed 15 people in south Lebanon on Sunday as a deadline for their withdrawal passed and thousands of people tried to return to their homes in defiance of Israeli military orders, Lebanese authorities said. Israel said on Friday it would keep troops in the south beyond the Sunday d

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israeli forces kill 15 people in south Lebanon as residents try to return, Lebanese authorities say
REUTERS
Published :
Jan 26, 2025 21:07
Updated :
Jan 26, 2025 22:19

Locals gather with flags in Burj al-Muluk, near the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, where Israeli forces remained on the ground after a deadline for their withdrawal passed as residents sought to return to homes in the border area, Lebanon Jan 26, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Karamallah Daher

Israeli forces killed 15 people in south Lebanon on Sunday as a deadline for their withdrawal passed and thousands of people tried to return to their homes in defiance of Israeli military orders, Lebanese authorities said.

Israel said on Friday it would keep troops in the south beyond the Sunday deadline set out in a US-brokered ceasefire that halted last year’s war with Hezbollah, saying Lebanon had not yet fully enforced terms requiring south Lebanon to be free of Hezbollah arms and the Lebanese army to be deployed.

Lebanon’s US-backed military, which reported one of its soldiers among those killed by Israeli forces on Sunday, has accused Israel of procrastinating in its withdrawal.

The Hezbollah-Israel conflict was fought in parallel with the Gaza war, and peaked in a major Israeli offensive that uprooted more than a million people in Lebanon and left the Iran-backed group badly weakened.

Lebanon’s health ministry said 15 people were killed and another 83 wounded in numerous locations in the south, as a result of what it described as Israeli attacks on citizens while they were trying to enter their still-occupied towns.

The Israeli military said that its troops “operating in southern Lebanon fired warning shots to remove threats in a number of areas where suspects were identified approaching the troops”. It also said “a number of suspects ... that posed an imminent threat” were apprehended.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar television, broadcasting from several locations in the south, showed footage of residents moving towards villages early on Sunday, some holding the group’s flag and images of Hezbollah fighters killed in the war.

An Israeli military spokesperson, addressing the people of south Lebanon in a post on X, accused Hezbollah of trying to “heat up the situation” and said the Israeli army would “in the near future” inform them of places to which they can return.

Hezbollah has put the onus on the Lebanese state to ensure Israel’s withdrawal.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said Lebanon is committed to the ceasefire deal but that Israel had turned against it with US support. The White House said on Friday that a short, temporary ceasefire extension was urgently needed.

PRESIDENT URGES SOUTHERNERS TO TRUST ARMY

“What is happening in the border villages is a liberation by the power of the people, and our people will not be broken by the Israeli army,” he told Reuters. “We want the state to play its full role, and the army to be deployed in the villages.”

“We cooperate with it to facilitate its mission.”

The top U.N. official in Lebanon and the head of the UN peacekeepers in the south said conditions were “not yet in place” for the safe return of Lebanese citizens to villages near the border. “The fact is that the timelines envisaged” in the ceasefire “have not been met”, they said in a statement.

The agreement set out a 60-day timeline for implementation.

President Joseph Aoun, Lebanon’s army commander until parliament elected him head of state on Jan 9, called on the people of the south to exercise self-restraint and trust in the Lebanese military.

“‎Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are non-negotiable, and I am following up on this issue at the highest levels to ensure your rights and dignity,” he said in a statement.

Israel has not said how long its forces would remain in the south, where the Israeli military says it has been seizing Hezbollah weapons and dismantling its infrastructure.

Israel said its offensive against Hezbollah aimed to secure the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis who were forced to leave homes at the border by Hezbollah rocket fire.

Hezbollah opened fire in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas at the start of the Gaza war on Oct 8, 2023.​

 

[Saif]

Lebanese try again to return to southern border villages

South Lebanon residents accompanied by the army tried to return to their villages on Monday, official media and AFP correspondents reported, a day after Israeli fire killed more than 20 people in the area.

www.newagebd.net

Lebanese try again to return to southern border villages
Agence France-Presse . Burj al Muluk, Lebanon 27 January, 2025, 22:20

Women carrying portraits of fighters walk past the rubble of a mosque that was destroyed during the Israeli air and ground offensive in the southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab, near the border with Israel on Monday. | AFP photo

South Lebanon residents accompanied by the army tried to return to their villages on Monday, official media and AFP correspondents reported, a day after Israeli fire killed more than 20 people in the area.

Caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said that Lebanon had agreed to an extension of the ceasefire deal between Hezbollah and Israel until February 18, after the Israeli military missed Sunday’s deadline to withdraw.

An AFP correspondent saw dozens of vehicles carrying families headed towards border towns, a day after hundreds of residents tried unsuccessfully to return to their homes.

Lebanon’s health ministry said that fresh ‘Israeli enemy attacks while citizens attempt to return to their towns’ had wounded two people Monday in the village of Bani Hayyan, including a child.

In the village of Burj al-Muluk, an AFP photographer saw dozens of men, women and children gathering in the morning behind a dirt barrier, some holding yellow Hezbollah flags, hoping to reach the border town of Kfar Kila, where the Israeli military is still deployed.

In the city of Bint Jbeil, an access point for many border villages, Hezbollah supporters were distributing sweets, water and images of former chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in September.

Others handed out stickers celebrating the ‘victory from God’ as women held pictures of slain Hezbollah fighters.

The official National News Agency said that Lebanese ‘army reinforcements’ had arrived near the border town of Mais al-Jabal, where people had started to gather at ‘the entrance of the town’ in preparation for entering alongside the military.

It said the Israeli army had ‘opened fire in the direction of the Lebanese army’ near the town, without reporting casualties.

In the nearby town of Hula, the agency said residents entered ‘after the deployment of the army in several neighbourhoods’.

Under the ceasefire deal that took effect on November 27, the Lebanese military was to deploy in the south alongside United Nations peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period, which ended on Sunday.

Hezbollah was also to pull back its forces north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometres from the border.

Both sides have traded blame for delays in implementing the deal, which came after more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee on Monday called again for south Lebanon residents to ‘wait’ before returning.

Hilal Khashan, professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, said he did not expect a return to major violence.

‘Hezbollah no longer wants any further confrontation with Israel, its goal is to protect its achievements in Lebanon,’ he said.

The health ministry said Monday that Israeli fire killed 24 people who were trying to return to their villages the previous day, updating an earlier toll of 22 dead.

The Israeli military had said soldiers ‘fired warning shots to remove threats’ where ‘suspects were identified approaching the troops’.

The Lebanese army said Sunday it would ‘continue to accompany residents’ returning to the south and ‘protect them from Israeli attacks’.​