THE United Nations says over 71 civilians have been killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon since a ceasefire was struck at the end of last year.
Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesperson for the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said on Tuesday that the death toll included 14 women and nine children. He called for investigations into “each and every military action where civilians are killed”.
OHCHR raised concerns about recent Israeli military operations hitting civilian infrastructure, including a strike on April 3 that destroyed a newly established medical centre run by the Islamic Health Society in the southern city of Naqoura.
It also noted that at least five rockets, two mortars and a drone have been launched from Lebanon towards northern Israel, according to the Israeli army, and tens of thousands of Israelis remain displaced from the north.
“The ceasefire must hold, and any escalation is a risk for stability in general in Lebanon, Israel and the whole region,” Al-Kheetan said.
Later on Tuesday, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health reported that an Israeli drone strike on a car in the southern town of Aitaroun killed one person and injured three, including a child.
The Israeli military in a statement said the air strike killed “a squad commander in the special operations unit” of Hezbollah.
Israel has continued to strike Lebanon, including attacks on the capital, Beirut, since a November 27 ceasefire, which largely halted more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the armed group Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war.
Under the truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw fighters from south of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure there while Israel was to pull out all of its forces from southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s army has been deploying in the south near the border with Israel as Israeli forces have withdrawn although Israel continues to hold five fortified positions in Lebanon that it deems “strategic”.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told Al Jazeera on Monday that the army was “dismantling tunnels and warehouses and confiscating weapons bases” south of the Litani “without any problem from Hezbollah”.
On Thursday, a senior Hezbollah official told the Reuters news agency the group is ready to hold talks with the Lebanese president about its weapons if Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon and stops its strikes.
