Israel to continue ground operation in southern Lebanon despite agreed ceasefire; UN peacekeeper killed
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit Qlaileh village in Lebanon on Tuesday (Mohammed Zaatari/AP)
A UN peacekeeper has been killed in southern Lebanon as the Israeli defence minister said the military will continue its ground operations hours after Israel and Lebanon agreed to implement a US-backed ceasefire.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said a peacekeeper died this morning from injuries sustained when mortar shells hit his position near Marjayoun in southern Lebanon last night.
Unifil said two other peacekeepers were injured in the incident and were receiving treatment.
“Soon after the incident that happened late last night, the critically injured peacekeeper was flown to a hospital in Beirut, where he succumbed to his wounds,” Unifil said in a statement.
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It did not say where the shells originated from, but said an investigation has been launched “to ascertain the exact circumstances that led to this tragic incident”.
Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) will not withdraw from southern Lebanon, including Beaufort Castle, and the hundreds of thousands of people forced to flee their homes will not be able to return.
“The IDF will, at this stage, continue its fire and ground operations, remain in the security zone in Lebanon up to the yellow line – including in the Beaufort area – and without the return of the population, while continuing to dismantle terrorist infrastructure on the ground,” he said in a statement.
He added that the IDF retained the “freedom of action, with American backing, to strike in Beirut in response to fire on Israeli communities and territory”.
The IDF also issued a warning this morning saying fighting will continue in southern Lebanon as it urged people to “refrain from heading south of the Zahrani River”.
Earlier, Israel and Lebanon agreed to renew their fragile ceasefire on Wednesday and create a number of “pilot” security zones inside Lebanon from which Hezbollah militants would be banned.
In a joint statement released after a fourth round of US-mediated talks at the State Department, the two sides said the ceasefire “is contingent on a complete cessation of Hezbollah fire and the evacuation of all Hezbollah operatives” from areas south of the Litani River, which is roughly 20 miles north of the northern Israel-Lebanon border.
It was not immediately clear how the security zones would be established, but the agreement calls for the Lebanese army to take full control of those areas.
“These steps will enable progress towards a comprehensive peace and security agreement,” the statement said. “All countries reaffirmed that the future of the relationship between Israel and Lebanon must be decided by the two sovereign governments. They rejected any attempt, by any state or non-state actor, to hold Lebanon’s future hostage.”
Hezbollah is not part of the Israel-Lebanon talks, which have been held at the ambassadorial level in Washington since the beginning of last month.
“All parties condemned Iran’s attacks on countries in the region, and ongoing activities that undermine stability throughout the Middle East, whether through support for proxies and all other acts of aggression,” the statement said.
A new round of discussions will be held during the week of June 22 with an eye toward “reaching a comprehensive agreement”.
The agreement came hours after an Israeli strike hit a car on a busy road just south of Beirut.
The strike in Khaldeh came without warning, and it was not immediately clear if the person targeted was killed. Israel usually says it targets members of the Hezbollah militant group in these drone strikes.
Israel launched an invasion of southern Lebanon days after the latest war was sparked on March 2 when Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets towards northern Israel in solidarity with Iran.
Israeli troops have pushed deeper into Lebanon over the past week as Hezbollah continues to claim rocket and drone attacks.
The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has killed 3,468 people in Lebanon and displaced 1.2 million people.
According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, at least 27 Israeli soldiers and a defence contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon. Two civilians have also been killed in northern Israel.
Among the 27 killed was a soldier in southern Lebanon, whose death was announced late on Monday by Israel’s military. It added that seven more soldiers were wounded in the incident, three severely.
Hezbollah’s use of hard-to-detect fibre-optic drones has been deadly for the Israeli military, which is struggling to respond.
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