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Agence France-Presse

Lebanon said on Monday it would extend a ceasefire deal with Israel until mid-February, even though the Israeli military did not meet a deadline to withdraw its troops and killed 22 people in the south of the country.
The deadly violence recorded by health officials on Sunday came as residents tried to return home as Israel was scheduled to pull its troops from southern Lebanon.
The withdrawal deadline is part of a ceasefire agreement reached two months ago that ended Israel’s war with Iran-backed Hezbollah, which had left the Lebanese militant group weakened.
The deal that took effect on November 27 said the Lebanese military was to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period that ended on Sunday.

The parties have traded blame for the delay in implementing the agreement, and on Friday Israel said it would keep troops across the border in south Lebanon beyond the pull-out date.
Lebanon’s health ministry said on Sunday that Israeli forces opened fire on “citizens who were trying to return to their villages that are still under (Israeli) occupation”.
It said 22 people including six women and a soldier were killed and 124 more wounded. The Lebanese army also announced the soldier’s death and said another had been wounded.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its “troops operating in southern Lebanon fired warning shots to remove threats” where “suspects were identified approaching the troops”.
It added that “a number of suspects … that posed an imminent threat to the troops were apprehended”.
Agence France-Presse journalists said convoys of vehicles carrying hundreds of people, some flying yellow Hezbollah flags, were trying to get to several border villages.

“We will return to our villages and the Israeli enemy will leave”, even if it costs lives, said Ali Harb, a 27-year-old trying to go to Kfar Kila.
A joint statement from the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the head of the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission acknowledged that “conditions are not yet in place for the safe return of citizens to their villages”.
An Agence France-Presse correspondent saw hundreds of people gather for a collective prayer on a main road in the border town of Bint Jbeil, followed by a march to some nearby villages.
Residents could also be seen heading on foot and by motorbike towards the devastated border town of Mays al-Jabal, where Israeli troops are still stationed.
Some held up portraits of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, slain in an Israeli attack in late September, while women dressed in black carried photos of family members killed in the war.
Hezbollah hailed a “glorious day” and praised residents’ “deep attachment to their land” in a statement on Sunday.

The group also called on the backers of the ceasefire agreement – which includes the United States and France – to “assume their responsibilities in the face of these violations and crimes of the Israeli enemy”.
After talks with the US, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Monday the government would “continue implementing the ceasefire agreement until February 18, 2025”.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee had issued a message earlier on Sunday to residents of more than 60 villages in southern Lebanon telling them not to return.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, the former army chief who took office earlier this month, called on residents to keep a cool head and “trust the Lebanese army” which sought their safe return home.
The Lebanese army said earlier it would “continue to accompany residents” returning to the south and “protect them from Israeli attacks”.
Israeli forces have left coastal areas of southern Lebanon but are still present in areas further east.




The ceasefire deal stipulates that Hezbollah pull back its forces north of the Litani River – about 30km (20 miles) from the border – and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday that the “agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the Lebanese state”, so the military’s withdrawal would continue beyond the Sunday deadline.
French President Emmanuel Macron told Netanyahu in a telephone call Sunday to “withdraw his forces still present in Lebanon” and stressed the importance of restoring Lebanese state authority nationwide, his office said.
The truce has generally held since November, despite repeated accusations of violations.
It ended two months of full-scale war that had followed nearly a year of low-intensity exchanges.
Hezbollah began trading cross-border fire with the Israeli military the day after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by its Palestinian ally Hamas, which triggered the war in Gaza.


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Middle East

Israeli soldiers secure a roadblock near the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila. Photo: AFP

Emergency services evacuate people wounded by gunshots near the village of Odaisseh in southern Lebanon. Photo: AP

A man injured by Israeli fire in southern Lebanon. Photo: AFP

Israeli soldiers near Israel’s border with Lebanon, in northern Israel. Photo: Reuters

A person gestures from inside an Israeli helicopter carrying four Israeli female soldiers released from Gaza on Saturday. Photo: AP

A drone view shows Palestinians waiting to be allowed to return to their homes in northern Gaza. Photo: Reuters

Four female Israeli soldiers released by Hamas on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

This picture taken from Lebanon’s southern village of Shaqra on Saturday shows an Israeli army tank moving along a road on the outskirts of the village of Mais al-Jabal along the border with Israel in south Lebanon. Photo: AFP

Residents of south Lebanon wave Hezbollah flags near the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

UN peacekeepers in Blida, a Lebanese border village with Israel in south Lebanon, on Saturday. Photo: AP

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, Lebanon on January 18. Photo: EPA-EFE

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Food from USAID for Ethiopian refugees who fled the Tigray conflict in 2020. File photo: AFP

Boxes containing tent material from USAID for Philippine victims of super typhoon Haiyan in 2013. File photo: Reuters

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Photo: Reuters

Israel blocks Palestinians returning home to northern Gaza

Palestinian families wait to return to the northern Gaza Strip from the southern Gaza Strip, in central Gaza on Saturday. Photo: EPA-EFE

A child looks on as Palestinians wait to be allowed to return to their homes in northern Gaza on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

Tens of thousands wait to return to northern Gaza and their homes, demolished or not, on Saturday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Photo: APA Images via Zuma Press Wire / dpa

Trump urges Jordan and Egypt to ‘clean out’ Gaza, take in more Palestinians

Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip. Photo: EPA-EFE

US President Donald Trump speaks with reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

News

World

Israel and Lebanon extend ceasefire until February 18, even as tensions flare again


Israel and Lebanon extend ceasefire until February 18, even as tensions flare again.


Lebanon

Israel

War and conflict

Islamic militancy