The Israeli military carried out a number of operations in southern Lebanon on Thursday, one day after its ceasefire with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia came into force.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an aircraft attacked a weapons depot belonging to the Iran-backed group after “terrorist activity was identified in a facility used by Hezbollah to store mid-range rockets.”
According to Israeli media reports, it was the first Israeli airstrike in Lebanon since the ceasefire took effect early on Wednesday.
The ceasefire agreement stipulates that Hezbollah must withdraw behind the Litani River, about 30 kilometres north of the border to Israel, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
The resolution marked the end of the last war in Lebanon in 2006 but was never fully implemented.
Israel’s ground troops are to gradually withdraw from Lebanon over the next 60 days, but the IDF says it is still taking action against Hezbollah members who are violating the agreement.
Earlier, the Lebanese state news agency NNA reported that at least two people were injured when the Israeli military fired on villages near the border in south-eastern Lebanon.
The news agengy said the injuries occurred in the village of Markaba, while tanks also reportedly fired on the villages of Wasani and Kfar Shuba.
In a statement, the IDF said that several suspected Hezbollah fighters had arrived in vehicles in various parts of southern Lebanon, violating the terms of the ceasefire.
“The IDF opened fire on them,” it said, adding that it would punish any violations of the agreement.
It also announced another night-time curfew in southern Lebanon, with a spokesman saying access to border areas south of the Litani River has been banned between 5 pm (1500 GMT) on Thursday and 7 am on Friday.
“For your safety, you must follow these instructions,” the spokesman said in a post on X. The military announced a similar curfew on Wednesday evening.
Iran calls ceasefire a ‘humiliating defeat’ for Israel
The 60-day ceasefire is designed to put an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that began more than one year ago in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attacks.
The deal has been welcomed around the world, and particularly in Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands were displaced and thousands killed in the fighting following Israel’s ground invasion in late September.
As well as suffering setbacks in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah lost a number of top commanders in targeted Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, including its leader Hassan Nasrallah.
In a letter on Thursday to Nasrallah’s successor Naim Qassem, however, the leader of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the ceasefire was a “victory for Hezbollah” and a “strategic and humiliating defeat” for Israel.
