Israel strikes southern Lebanon days after signing framework agreement, as Hezbollah warns the deal could trigger internal conflict.
BEIRUT: Israel renewed its strikes on Lebanon on Sunday, Lebanese state media reported, two days after an agreement was signed by the two countries, which a Hezbollah lawmaker warned would lead to “internal conflict”.
The strikes come a day after one person was killed in an Israeli strike on the south, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, with the Israeli military saying it targeted Hezbollah members near its self-proclaimed “security zone”, which reaches 10 kilometres (6 miles) into Lebanon.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported several strikes on Sunday.
The Israeli army said a soldier “fell in combat” in southern Lebanon.
In a later statement, Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir approved plans for “continued operations in the security zone, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement”.
Hezbollah drew the country into the Middle East war in March with rocket fire aimed at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes, and Israel responded with massive airstrikes and a ground invasion.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told his US counterpart Donald Trump on Saturday that his country “would assume its responsibilities” in implementing the framework agreement, which was signed in Washington on Friday after five rounds of talks.
The deal aims to pave the way for peace between Israel and Lebanon, who have officially been at war for decades, though Israel’s many conflicts across its northern border have largely been with non-state actors.
The agreement makes any Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese land conditional on Beirut disarming Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deal “historic” for his country.
‘Internal conflict’
Hezbollah strongly opposed the talks with Israel from the start and rejects the agreement, with leader Naim Qassem saying on Saturday that the group would treat the deal as “null and void” and describing it as “a surrender of sovereignty”.
His supporters took to the streets on Friday evening to protest the framework.
An AFP correspondent saw signs on Sunday morning that read “Lebanon first” being burned along Beirut’s airport road, which borders the city’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, after previous billboards saying “thank you Iran” were removed.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said on Sunday that “the agreement of humiliation and disgrace signed by the authorities will never see the light of day”.
He added that what “the authorities have done amounts to sedition aimed at pushing the country into chaos and shifting the conflict from one with the enemy to an internal conflict”.
Hezbollah repeatedly asked Lebanese authorities to link themselves to Iran’s negotiations to end its war with the US, while Tehran has insisted any ceasefire for the Middle East war should include Lebanon.
In a phone conversation with his Lebanese counterpart Nabih Berri, Iranian parliament speaker and head of Tehran’s negotiating delegation Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that “our goal is to end the war in Lebanon, return the refugees to their homes and remove the occupation and the withdrawal of the Zionist regime from the Lebanese territory, and we are seriously pursuing this issue”.
According to the text of the deal shared by the US State Department, Lebanon and Israel expressed their intent to “conclusively end the conflict, address its underlying causes and… formally conclude any state of war between them”.
Under the agreement, Lebanon’s military will “restore effective sovereign authority over all Lebanese territory, pending the verified disarmament of non-state armed groups”.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, however, has insisted troops will stay in Lebanon so long as Hezbollah remains armed.
