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Israel bombed dozens of targets across Lebanon on Monday night, after Hizbollah fired rockets at Israeli-controlled territory, in an exchange of fire that put a truce between the two sides under severe strain.
Lebanon’s state news agency said Israeli air raids struck multiple locations in southern parts of the country, some as far as 50km from the border with Israel.
Israel said the strikes targeted Hizbollah militants, rocket launchers and infrastructure. Lebanon’s health ministry said at least nine people were killed in the bombings.
The Israel Defense Forces’ salvo came after Hizbollah on Monday fired two rockets at an Israeli position in the disputed Shebaa Farms territory, in what the Lebanese militant group said was a “defensive response” to “repeated” violations by Israel of the US-brokered ceasefire deal.
Israel has carried out multiple strikes since the ceasefire took effect last Wednesday, which have killed at least 13 people in Lebanon, according to the health ministry, including one member of the Lebanese state security forces.
Israeli drones have also been heard flying low over Beirut several times in the past few days, including when the IDF struck on Monday night.
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The Israeli military said that despite the air strikes it remained “obligated” by the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hizbollah.
But the flare-up underscored the fragility of the agreement, which had raised hopes of an end to the deadliest confrontation between the two sides in decades.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israeli forces are meant to withdraw from Lebanon over a period of 60 days and be replaced by the Lebanese army.
Hizbollah is required to withdraw beyond the Litani river, which runs up to 30km north of the contested border between Israel and Lebanon.
Israel insists it reserves the right to unilaterally enforce the agreement through military action, which the Lebanese dispute.
Before the Israeli air strikes on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would respond “to any violation by Hizbollah” of the ceasefire agreement. “A minor one will be treated like a major one,” he added.
How violations will be dealt with remains unclear. In recent days officials from the US and France, which are meant to play a central role in ensuring that the ceasefire is observed, have expressed concerns about breaches.
A French diplomatic source said Paris had “warned both sides against actions that are jeopardising the implementation of the ceasefire agreement”.
The Biden administration’s envoy, Amos Hochstein, who played a crucial role in brokering the truce, has also passed on concerns about Israel’s violations of the deal to Israeli officials.
The speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, Nabih Berri, said Lebanon had logged at least 54 Israeli violations of the ceasefire since it took effect and called on the committee due to oversee its implementation to begin work “urgently”.
“The aggressive actions carried out by the Israeli occupation forces constitute a flagrant violation of the terms of the ceasefire,” he added.
However, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, insisted Israel was not violating the deal “but rather enforcing [it] in response to Hizbollah’s violations”.
“The presence of Hizbollah operatives south of the Litani is a fundamental violation of the agreement and they must move north,” he said.
