Israeli strikes in south Lebanon a ‘violation of international law’: PM

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam rejects Israel’s claim that villages destroyed in southern Lebanon were military sites.

Lebanon’s government has accused Israel of deliberately destroying homes and civilian infrastructure across the country’s south amid a ceasefire that has grown increasingly fragile.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Wednesday said Israel’s “attacks, incursions, demolitions and the systematic destruction of homes represent a serious violation of the principles and rules of international law and international humanitarian law”.

Salam rejected Israel’s claims that villages it had destroyed were military sites, saying the claim “does not stand up to any logic and cannot be used as an excuse for destroying them, displacing their inhabitants and preventing them from returning”.

His statement came hours after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz visited southern Lebanon and said Israeli forces were “destroying the underground infrastructure” there and “destroying all the houses”.

Katz separately said Israeli troops would not withdraw from occupied zones in Lebanon, Syria or Gaza. Israeli attacks wounded several people in southern Lebanon on the same day.

A US State Department official told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that Washington “expects all parties to act in a manner consistent with the framework they agreed to”, adding that Israel “has clearly stated that it has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon”.

On August ۵, Israel launched strikes on the town of Mansouri after accusing Hezbollah of a ceasefire violation that killed two Israeli soldiers near Majdal Zoun.

The Israeli military ordered residents to evacuate Mansouri, the first such order issued in weeks, while a separate attack elsewhere killed one person and wounded ۱۱. A day later, an Israeli strike hit a home in Burj al-Shemali.

Hezbollah did not claim the attack that killed the Israeli soldiers and has made no public statement addressing it directly.

Where the ‘ceasefire’ stands

Lebanon was drawn into the US and Israel’s war on Iran on March ۲ after Tehran-aligned Hezbollah launched attacks on northern Israel.

Although a US-mediated ceasefire aimed at halting the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began on April ۱۷, Israeli forces have continued their attacks and occupy dozens of villages across southern Lebanon, with no timeline set for a full withdrawal.

The latest conditional truce traces back to a framework agreement reached in Washington in June, under which Israeli forces were meant to withdraw gradually from occupied Lebanese territory as the Lebanese army deploys to replace them, starting with limited “pilot zones,” in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament.

Lebanon and Israel have since held seven rounds of US-mediated talks, four in Washington and three in Rome, aimed at implementing the agreement.

Hezbollah, which is not party to the talks, has said it will pull back from south of the Litani River but will not disarm to the north,

Lebanese authorities say Israeli strikes and ground operations since March have killed ۴,۳۳۳ people and displaced more than a million – roughly a fifth of the country’s population.

These figures have continued climbing through the summer even after the ceasefire nominally took effect.

In Washington, two US senators have proposed a $۱.۲bn security assistance package for Lebanon over five years, tying part of the funding to progress on the state’s monopoly over weapons and Hezbollah’s disarmament.

The assistance package highlights how the country’s post-war stability remains bound up with an unresolved political and military standoff that shows few signs of easing.