Fighting in Lebanon eased significantly yesterday but did not halt completely despite a US-Iran deal to end the wider conflict, with an Israeli strike killing one person and Hizbollah firing at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.
Pakistan, a key mediator between Tehran and Washington, announced that a deal was struck early on Monday local time called for ‘the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon’.
The declaration brought relative calm to southern Lebanon even as Israeli troops remain stationed in territory they have occupied in the three-month war, according to Lebanese and foreign security sources.
The sources recorded several cases of continued violence, including an Israeli drone strike on a car in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Tebnit that killed the driver.
Hizbollah also said it fired drones and rockets at Israeli military vehicles that it said were trying to push deeper into southern Lebanon, in its first attack since the deal. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on either incident.
An Israeli drone could be heard circling over Beirut and its southern suburbs throughout the day, according to Reuters reporters and other residents of the city.
Lebanon has suffered the deadliest spillover of the conflict between the US and Iran, with nearly 3,800 people killed and some 1.2 million people uprooted by an Israeli offensive against the Iran-backed Hizbollah group, which opened fire on Israel in support of Tehran on March 2.
In a written statement before Israel’s drone strike, Hizbollah welcomed the US-Iran deal, saying it had resulted in a comprehensive ceasefire including in Lebanon.
A Hizbollah official earlier told Reuters the group’s position on the ceasefire was linked to Israel adhering to it.
The official, who declined to be named, said Iran delayed signing its memorandum with the US until Friday partly to monitor whether Israel would keep up strikes on Lebanon.
Israel is not a party to the US-Iran deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that his troops would remain in southern Lebanon as long as needed.
&uuid=(email))