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Israel to Evacuate Residents of Border Town Near Lebanon

Israeli security forces inspect a site where a rocket launched from Lebanon fell in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona near the border on October 19, 2023, as border tensions between Israel on one side and Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions on the other intensify over Israel's war with Hamas. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
Israeli security forces inspect a site where a rocket launched from Lebanon fell in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona near the border on October 19, 2023, as border tensions between Israel on one side and Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions on the other intensify over Israel's war with Hamas. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
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Israel to Evacuate Residents of Border Town Near Lebanon

Israeli security forces inspect a site where a rocket launched from Lebanon fell in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona near the border on October 19, 2023, as border tensions between Israel on one side and Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions on the other intensify over Israel's war with Hamas. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
Israeli security forces inspect a site where a rocket launched from Lebanon fell in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona near the border on October 19, 2023, as border tensions between Israel on one side and Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions on the other intensify over Israel's war with Hamas. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

Israel plans to evacuate residents from the town of Kiryat Shmona near its border with Lebanon, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.
Residents of the town near the border will be moved to state-subsidized guesthouses, the ministry said.
On Thursday, the Lebanese army said a journalist was killed by Israeli gunfire in a southern Lebanon border area where Israel's forces and Hezbollah had a heavy exchange of fire.
Israel's military said earlier that its forces had targeted Hezbollah infrastructure and struck three people who attempted to launch anti-tank missiles at Israel. The military, asked about the Lebanese army's account, said it was investigating the matter.
Iran-backed Hezbollah said it fired rockets at an Israeli position in the village of Manara and that Israel responded with shelling. The cross-border blows were the latest in the worst bout of violence on the border in 17 years.
A spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping force in the area, UNIFIL, said a civilian had been killed in the exchange.
"The Lebanese Armed Forces requested UNIFIL's assistance for seven individuals stranded near the Blue Line, close to Sheikh Abad's tomb, during a significant exchange of fire across the Blue Line," UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said.
He said UNIFIL contacted the Israeli army to request it ceasefire in order to rescue the group. "Tragically, one person lost his life during this incident and the others were successfully rescued," Tenenti said.
The Lebanese army described the seven people as media personnel, saying Israeli forces targeted them with machine guns, killing one and wounding another. It did not provide their identities.
The incident came nearly a week after a Reuters journalist was killed and other journalists injured in southern Lebanon. Lebanon's army blamed Israel for the incident, which Israel's military says it is reviewing. Reuters has called on Israel to conduct a "thorough, swift and transparent investigation".
Cross-border exchanges have flared since Oct. 7, when Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel and Israeli forces launched a counteroffensive on Gaza.
Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas which fought a war with Israel in 2006, says 13 of its fighters have been killed so far in south Lebanon since Oct. 7 in the flare-ups on Israel's northern border.

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Israel Sees More to Do on Lebanon Ceasefire

FILE PHOTO: A car drives past damaged buildings in Naqoura, near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, January 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Hankir/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A car drives past damaged buildings in Naqoura, near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, January 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Hankir/File Photo
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Israel Sees More to Do on Lebanon Ceasefire

FILE PHOTO: A car drives past damaged buildings in Naqoura, near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, January 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Hankir/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A car drives past damaged buildings in Naqoura, near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, January 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Hankir/File Photo

Israel said on Thursday the terms of a ceasefire with Hezbollah were not being implemented fast enough and there was more work to do, while the Iran-backed group urged pressure to ensure Israeli troops leave south Lebanon by Monday as set out in the deal.

The deal stipulates that Israeli troops withdraw from south Lebanon, Hezbollah remove fighters and weapons from the area and Lebanese troops deploy there - all within a 60-day timeframe which will conclude on Monday at 4 a.m (0200 GMT).

The deal, brokered by the United States and France, ended more than a year of hostilities triggered by the Gaza war. The fighting peaked with a major Israeli offensive that displaced more than 1.2 million people in Lebanon and left Hezbollah severely weakened.

"There have been positive movements where the Lebanese army and UNIFIL have taken the place of Hezbollah forces, as stipulated in the agreement," Israeli government spokesmen David Mencer told reporters, referring to UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.

"We've also made clear that these movements have not been fast enough, and there is much more work to do," he said, affirming that Israel wanted the agreement to continue.

Mencer did not directly respond to questions about whether Israel had requested an extension of the deal or say whether Israeli forces would remain in Lebanon after Monday's deadline.

Hezbollah said in a statement that there had been leaks talking about Israel postponing its withdrawal beyond the 60-day period, and that any breach of the agreement would be unacceptable.
The statement said that possibility required everyone, especially Lebanese political powers, to pile pressure on the states which sponsored the deal to ensure "the implementation of the full (Israeli) withdrawal and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the last inch of Lebanese territory and the return of the people to their villages quickly.”

Any delay beyond the 60 days would mark a blatant violation of the deal with which the Lebanese state would have to deal "through all means and methods guaranteed by international charters" to recover Lebanese land "from the occupation's clutches," Hezbollah said.