Israeli troops opened fire in south Lebanon on Sunday, killing 22 residents and a Lebanese soldier, health officials said as hundreds of people tried to return to their homes on the deadline for Israel to withdraw.
Lebanon's health ministry said 22 people were killed and another 124 wounded in numerous locations in the south, as a result of what it described as Israeli attacks on citizens while they were trying to enter their still-occupied towns.
Demonstrators, some of them carrying Hezbollah flags, attempted to enter several villages in the border area to protest Israel’s failure to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon by the 60-day deadline stipulated in a ceasefire agreement that halted the Israel-Hezbollah war in late November.
Israel has said that it needs to stay longer because the Lebanese army has not deployed to all areas of southern Lebanon to ensure that Hezbollah does not reestablish a military presence in the area. The Lebanese army has said it cannot deploy until Israeli forces withdraw.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, addressing the people of southern Lebanon on Sunday via the X social media platform, said that “Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are non-negotiable, and I am following up on this issue at the highest levels to ensure your rights and dignity.”
An Israeli military spokesperson, in a post on X addressed to the people of south Lebanon, accused Hezbollah of trying to "heat up the situation" and said the Israeli army would "in the near future" inform them of places to which they can return.
Hezbollah, badly weakened by Israel during the war, has put the onus on the Lebanese state to ensure Israel's withdrawal, describing Israel's failure to withdraw on time as a violation of the agreement.
