Israeli army fire killed 22 people in south Lebanon on Sunday, January 26, including a soldier, health officials said, as residents tried to return home on the day Israel was meant to withdraw under a truce deal. 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 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 army was to deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period that ends 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 pullout date.
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 (AFP) journalists said convoys of vehicles carrying hundreds of people, some flying yellow Hezbollah flags, were trying to get to several border villages.
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."
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 he said wanted "to ensure your safe return to your homes and villages." Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called Sunday for the backers of the ceasefire agreement – a group that includes the United States and France – "to force the Israeli enemy to withdraw."
French President Emmanuel Macron told Netanyahu in a telephone call on Sunday to "withdraw his forces still present in Lebanon" and stressed the importance of restoring Lebanese state authority nationwide, Macron's office said.