MULTIPLE Israeli strikes have killed at least four people in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh governorate, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), despite a ceasefire and a recent understanding between the United States and Iran to end the war on all fronts.
Tuesday’s killing took place as separate drone attacks targeted two vehicles in Mayfadoun. A third vehicle was also targeted in the village of Shoukin, the agency said.
Throughout the often fragile negotiations between Iran and the US, Iranian officials repeatedly said that any ceasefire arrangement would need to include an end to Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
While the final text of the memorandum of understanding has not yet been made public, the prime minister of Pakistan, which is acting as one of the mediators in the conflict, said on Monday that the agreement envisaged an immediate halt to military operations “on all fronts, including Lebanon”.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that Israel’s continued occupation of southern Lebanon would violate the deal, adding that “without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end”.
Iran’s Top Joint Military Command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said that Israel should expect a hard response from the Iranian armed forces if it did not stop its attacks on southern Lebanon.
In a phone conversation with Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, called for the US to compel Israel to end its war on Lebanon, stop home demolitions, and withdraw from occupied Lebanese territory.
Soon after the announcement of the deal between the US and Iran, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will continue to occupy southern Lebanon.
Lebanese group Hezbollah says it has received assurances from Iran that Tehran will demand a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon in its next phase of talks with the US, the Reuters news agency reported.
Meanwhile, as Nabatieh residents returned to check on their properties, a feeling of pessimism prevailed.
“This is a decades-old conflict with Israel … an enemy that can’t be trusted … and we can never feel safe,” Mohammed Nasser told Al Jazeera.
“The Israeli army is trying to occupy positions that it once held during their occupation of southern Lebanon in the 1990s, but the resistance is preventing them from doing so,” another resident Hussein Badreddine said.
Since the resumption in fighting on March 2, at least 3,826 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Lebanon and 11,851 wounded, according to the country’s health ministry.