An Israeli drone strike targeted a vehicle in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, killing one person, the state news agency NNA reported.
The attack hit a car in the town of Aita al-Shaab in the Bint Jbeil district, the report said, without giving any details on the identity of the victim.
Israeli gunfire in the town of Wazzani also led to the injury of two individuals, the Lebanese health ministry said.
The latest violations came as Lebanese leaders engaged with Washington and Paris to press Israel to complete its withdrawal from five remaining border locations, calling its continued occupation there after a ceasefire deadline expired on Tuesday as a violation of the truce agreement.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the government was in talks with truce brokers the US and France to push Israel to fully withdraw after an initial deadline in late January was extended.
“Decision-makers are unified in adopting the diplomatic option because nobody wants war,” Aoun said.
Earlier, Aoun joined Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and the Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri in slamming Israel’s military presence on Lebanese soil as an “occupation”.
In a statement, they said Lebanon would petition the UN Security Council to enforce Israel’s withdrawal, asserting that Lebanese armed forces were preparing to assume border security duties and that Beirut had “the right to adopt all means” to compel an Israeli pullout.
Israel announced just before the ceasefire deadline that it would keep its forces in “five strategic points” near the border to “ensure no immediate threats”.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said forces would withdraw “once Lebanon implements its side of the deal”.Â
UN envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and UN peacekeepers issued a joint statement saying that any delay in Israel’s withdrawal beyond the agreed timeframe violated the Security Council resolution.
Under the ceasefire agreement, later extended, Lebanon’s military was supposed to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers while Israeli forces were due to withdraw over a period of 60 days.
Hezbollah was required to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30km from the border, and dismantle its remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Since the truce began, around 60 people have been killed in Lebanon, including two dozen on 26 January when Lebanese residents attempted to return to their homes in border towns on the original deadline for Israel’s withdrawal.
Southern Lebanon residents return home
Lebanese residents on Tuesday began returning to homes, farms, and businesses in southern Lebanon – most of which were damaged by Israeli fire.Â
“The entire village has been reduced to rubble. It’s a disaster zone,” a resident from Kfar Kila told local media.Â
Despite the destruction, many returning residents remain determined to rebuild.
“The whole village is returning. We will set up tents and sit on the ground if we have to,” another returning resident said.
Others have returned to search for missing relatives under the rubble, as civil defence teams recovered 23 bodies from previously inaccessible villages, including 14 in Mais al-Jabal and three in Kfar Kila.
The cost of reconstruction in Lebanon is estimated to exceed $10 billion, with over 100,000 people still displaced, according to UN figures.
Ultra-Orthodox Israelis arrested for crossing into Lebanon
Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that four ultra-Orthodox Israelis were arrested after around 30 settlers had illegally crossed into Lebanon overnight on Tuesday and into the early hours of Wednesday.
According to Haaretz, the men allegedly threw stones at approaching Israeli soldiers before being detained. The group was allegedly attempting to visit what is traditionally believed to be the tomb of Babylonian rabbi Rav Ashi.
The ultra-Orthodox Jews claim that Rabbi Ashi, a fourth-century Jewish scholar, is buried at the site, which sits on a Lebanese mountain very near the border with Israel.
The Times of Israel noted that the site is located on the Blue Line, within a militarised zone between an Israeli army post and a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)Â base, directly facing the Lebanese village of Houla in the Marjeyoun district.
This was the second such incident in a week. Over the weekend, around 20 ultra-Orthodox Israelis also crossed into Lebanon illegally before being arrested by Israeli troops.
Early in December, several families from the hardline South Lebanon Settlers’ Movement crossed the Blue Line and set up tents in Maroun al-Ras, a town in southern Lebanon.
At the time, images circulated on social media showing the settlers carrying banners reading “Lebanon is ours”.
