Despite ceasefire, Israel launches airstrike on Lebanon
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Beirut: Despite a cease-fire agreement between Lebanon and Israel, an Israeli airstrike struck a house in eastern Lebanon's Baalbek district, according to Lebanese officials and military sources.
According to the official National News Agency, the dawn strike targeted a house in the plain of Taraya village, near the Litani River west of Baalbek, on Wednesday, killing no one. It accused Israeli fighter planes of "violating the ceasefire agreement.”
A Lebanese military source told Xinhua that Israeli artillery also fired several shells at the village of Maroun al-Ras in the southern border area at noon. The source added that "Israeli elements raised the Israeli flag on the Awaida hill on the southern outskirts of the Marjeyoun district."
A ceasefire, meant to halt nearly 14 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, came into effect on November 27. The agreement stipulated an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory within 60 days, with the Lebanese army deploying on the border and in the south to assume security control and ban weapons and militants, Xinhua news agency reported.
Earlier the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants filed a complaint through the country's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York with the UN Security Council (UNSC) in response to Israel's repeated violations of its ceasefire agreement with Lebanon.
The Lebanese ministry said on social media platform X that between November 27 and December 22, Israel launched over 816 land and air attacks against Lebanon, shelling border villages, booby-trapping homes, destroying residential neighbourhoods, and blocking roads.
Such violations complicate Lebanon's efforts to implement the provisions of UN Resolution 1701, hinder the Lebanese army's deployment in the south, and represent a serious threat to international efforts aimed at achieving regional security and stability, it said in the complaint
Despite the ceasefire, Israel has conducted intermittent strikes in Lebanon, some of which have caused casualties. Israel maintains the strikes target Hezbollah militants it accuses of violating the agreement.
With inputs from IANS