Israel Strikes Lebanon Days After Framework Agreement, Hezbollah Warns of Internal Conflict
Israel renewed strikes on southern Lebanon on Sunday, Lebanese state media reported, two days after the two countries signed a framework agreement aimed at ending hostilities. The strikes came a day after one person was killed in an Israeli strike on the south, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. The Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah members near its self-proclaimed “security zone,” which extends 10 km into Lebanon.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported several strikes on Sunday. The Israeli army also 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.”
The framework agreement was signed in Washington on Friday after five rounds of talks. It aims to pave the way for peace between Israel and Lebanon, which have been officially at war for decades. The deal makes any Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese land conditional on Beirut disarming Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.
Hezbollah strongly opposed the talks and rejects the agreement. Leader Naim Qassem said on Saturday that the group would treat the deal as “null and void,” describing it as “a surrender of sovereignty.” Hezbollah supporters protested the framework on Friday evening. On Sunday morning, signs reading “Lebanon first” were burned along Beirut’s airport road, after previous billboards saying “thank you Iran” were removed.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah warned 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 had repeatedly asked Lebanese authorities to link themselves to Iran’s negotiations to end its war with the U.S. Tehran has insisted any ceasefire for the West Asia war should include Lebanon. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told his Lebanese counterpart 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.”
According to the text of the deal shared by the U.S. 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.” However, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has insisted troops will stay in Lebanon so long as Hezbollah remains armed.
