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Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hizbollah of a “serious violation” of the ceasefire in Lebanon on Monday, as Israeli air strikes and a rocket attack by the militant group put the five-day truce under severe strain.
The Israeli prime minister’s comments came after Hizbollah fired two rockets at an Israeli position in the disputed Chebaa Farms, in what it said was a “defensive response” to “repeated” Israeli violations of the deal, including air strikes that have killed four people in Lebanon.
Netanyahu said Israel would respond “forcefully” to the rockets. “We are determined . . . to respond to any violation by Hizbollah — a minor one will be treated like a major one,” he said.
The flare-up in hostilities underscored the fragility of the US-brokered agreement, which came into effect last week and raised hopes of an end to the deadliest confrontation between the two sides in decades.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israeli forces are meant to withdraw from Lebanon over a period of 60 days and be replaced by the Lebanese army. Hizbollah is required to withdraw beyond the Litani river, which runs up to 30km north of the contested border between Israel and Lebanon.
But how the deal will be enforced remains unclear, and in recent days officials from the US and France — which are meant to play a central role in ensuring that the ceasefire is observed — have expressed concerns about violations.
A French diplomatic source said Paris had “warned both sides against actions that are jeopardising the implementation of the ceasefire agreement”.
The Biden administration’s envoy, Amos Hochstein, who played a central role in brokering the ceasefire, has also passed on concerns about Israeli violations of the deal to Israeli officials.
The Speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, Nabih Berri, said Lebanon had logged at least 54 Israeli violations of the ceasefire since it took effect and called on the committee due to oversee its implementation to begin work “urgently”.
“The aggressive actions carried out by the Israeli occupation forces constitute a flagrant violation of the terms of the ceasefire,” he said.
However, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, insisted Israel was not violating the deal “but rather enforcing [it] in response to Hizbollah’s violations”.
“The presence of Hizbollah operatives south of the Litani is a fundamental violation of the agreement and they must move north,” he said.
Lebanese officials said the Israeli air strikes on Monday killed one person in the town of Marjayoun, about 10km from the border with Israel. The other, a member of Lebanon’s state security forces, was killed on duty in the city of Nabatiyeh, about 12km from the border.
In a separate incident, Lebanon’s army said an Israeli drone hit an army bulldozer in north-east Lebanon, near the border with Syria, wounding one soldier.
Israel’s military said it had carried out “several” strikes in south Lebanon to “thwart threats to Israeli civilians” and accused Hizbollah of acting “in violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon”.
It added that it was aware of reports a Lebanese soldier had been injured and the incident was under investigation.
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