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Fighting in southern Lebanon abated on Monday after the announcement of a U.S.-Iran deal to end the wider conflict, but local authorities warned displaced people not to rush home, and Israel said it would not withdraw its troops from the area.
Lebanon has suffered the deadliest spillover of the conflict between the U.S. and Iran, with nearly 3,800 people killed and some 1.2 million people uprooted by an Israeli offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which opened fire on Israel in support of Tehran on March 2.
Pakistan, a key mediator between Tehran and Washington, announced that a deal was struck early on Monday local time that called for “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”
The declaration brought relative calm to southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese and foreign security sources. An Israeli drone strike on a car in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Tebnit killed the driver, a Lebanese security source and Lebanese state media said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike.
The local and foreign security sources earlier said Israel had significantly reduced its attacks, though some artillery fire was reported in southern Lebanese towns, and a drone was heard above Beirut and its southern suburbs.
A Hezbollah official told Reuters the group had not carried out any operations since the deal was announced, adding that its position on the ceasefire was linked to Israel adhering to it.
The official, who declined to be named, added that Hezbollah rejects Israeli “freedom of movement” in Lebanon and said Iran delayed signing the deal with the U.S. to monitor Israel’s adherence to the ceasefire in Lebanon.
Israeli troops will remain
In a written statement on Monday before Israel’s drone strike, Hezbollah welcomed the U.S.-Iran deal, saying it had resulted in a comprehensive ceasefire, including in Lebanon.
The Tehran-backed group warned Israel that it would not accept any attacks that violate Lebanon’s sovereignty or target its people, and it said Lebanon’s inclusion in the agreement reflected Iran’s commitment to ending the war.
In south Lebanon, municipal councils called on residents to hold off on returning home. Israel’s air force has heavily bombed some towns there over the last three months, and others closer to the frontier are still occupied by Israeli troops.
Mona Mazeh, a displaced woman sheltering in Beirut’s Hamra district, had no immediate plans to return to her village near the southern city of Tyre. “Frankly, we are hesitant; Israel cannot be trusted,” she said.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, whose country is not a party to the U.S.-Iran deal, said Israel plans to stay “indefinitely” in land it holds in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip and would not withdraw, adding that it would retaliate if Iran attacked Israel due to events in Lebanon.
Katz said the security zone in southern Lebanon would be cleared of local residents, and “all terrorist infrastructure, including houses in contact villages,” a reference to Hezbollah.
The U.S. and Iran say they have reached a new ceasefire deal that would end fighting on all fronts — including Lebanon — and see the Strait of Hormuz reopen. The agreement is slated to be signed on Friday, but questions remain about whether Israel will also abide by the terms.
Katz also threatened that if Iran attacks Israel over its strikes in Lebanon, Israel will strike Iran with “great force.” Over the past two and a half years, Israel has taken control of areas in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria amounting to 1,000 square kilometres of territory.
The Israeli military has been razing villages in southern Lebanon for weeks, saying it is acting against Hezbollah militants embedded in civilian areas of the predominantly Shia Muslim region. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese Shias are sheltering in other parts of the country.
In Nabatieh, a devastated city in the south, Mohammed Daqdouq said he had returned on Monday morning to check on his home. “We’ll need a lifetime to rebuild — to rebuild it again and bring Nabatieh back to how it was,” he said.
In response to questions about where Israel stands on the deal, David Mencer, a spokesperson in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, told The Associated Press that Israel and the U.S. remain fully aligned on preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. But he added that Israel will not tolerate attacks from Hezbollah on its territory and will continue to act against those who seek to harm its citizens.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun issued a carefully worded statement on Monday in response to the U.S.-Iran deal, saying he was grateful to those who had worked toward de-escalation in Lebanon and appreciated the deal’s recognition of the importance of his country’s stability.
He did not mention Iran or Israel specifically. Aoun previously accused Tehran of using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with Washington.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a political ally of Hezbollah and head of the Shia Muslim Amal Movement, said the agreement laid “the foundations for security and stability in the region, including Lebanon.”
In a statement, Berri thanked Washington and Tehran for including a halt to Israeli attacks on Lebanon in the deal, and described that provision as binding.
Iran, whose Revolutionary Guard established Hezbollah in 1982, had insisted that a Lebanon ceasefire be included as part of any broader deal with the United States.