Hundreds of Lebanese attempted by force to reach southern villages near the border with Israel on Sunday morning, defying IDF warnings to stay away as the ceasefire’s original 60-day deadline for Israel to withdraw its forces passed and troops still remained in parts of the country’s south.

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli troops opened fire in some cases, and that three people had been killed and 31 wounded. The Lebanese Armed Forces separately reported one soldier killed and another wounded by Israeli fire.

Israel has said that it needs to stay past the deadline because the Lebanese army has not deployed to all areas of southern Lebanon, as was agreed, to ensure that Hezbollah does not reestablish a military presence in the area. The Lebanese army has accused Israel of procrastinating in its withdrawal.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar television, broadcasting from several locations in the south, showed footage of residents moving toward villages in defiance of Israeli orders, some holding the terror group’s flag and images of Hezbollah fighters killed in the war as well slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Demonstrators attempted to enter several villages in the border area to protest Israel’s failure to withdraw. Protesters were reported to breach or attempt to breach roadblocks that had been set up by both Lebanese and Israeli troops.

The Lebanese health ministry said one person was killed in the village of Houla, another in Aitaroun, and a third in Blida as a result of Israeli fire. The Lebanese Armed Forces says a soldier was killed on the Marwahin-Dhayra-Tyre road, and another was wounded in the town of Mays al-Jabal.

The IDF has not yet commented.

An Israeli military spokesperson, in a post on X addressed to the people of south Lebanon, accused Hezbollah of trying to “heat up the situation” and sending “rioters” to the border area. He said the Israeli army would “in the near future” inform them of places to which they could return.

“Hezbollah does not care about Lebanon’s interests. The images coming from some areas of southern Lebanon are evidence of that,” Adraee wrote on X.

“The defeated party is using all its media outlets to challenge Lebanon’s interests and to divert attention from the sin of its leaders who brought southern Lebanon to this reality.”

The Lebanese army called on civilians to “exercise self-restraint” and follow its instructions.

In a statement, the Lebanese Armed Forces said it was accompanying civilians entering several villages in south Lebanon, “amid the Israeli enemy’s persistence in violating Lebanon’s sovereignty, its attacks on citizens, causing martyrs and wounded among them, and its refusal to abide by the ceasefire agreement and withdraw from the Lebanese territories it occupied.”

Hezbollah, badly weakened by Israel during the war, has put the onus on the Lebanese state to ensure the IDF’s withdrawal, describing Israel’s failure to leave southern Lebanon by the deadline as a violation of the agreement.

“We are in our land and the enemy is the one who turned against the agreement and violated the agreement, and thus the people are the ones who are liberating their land with their own hands and blood,” said Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah, speaking to al-Manar.

“We want the state to play its role,” he added.

Another Hezbollah lawmaker, Ali Fayad, said on Saturday that Israel’s “excuses” were a pretext to “pursue a scorched earth policy” in border areas that would make the return of displaced residents impossible.

The ceasefire deal stipulates that Hezbollah pull back its forces north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border — and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday that “the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the Lebanese state,” so the Israeli military’s withdrawal would not yet take place despite the Sunday deadline.

Israeli forces have left coastal areas of southern Lebanon, but are still present in areas further east.

“The withdrawal process is conditional upon the Lebanese army deploying in southern Lebanon and fully and effectively enforcing the agreement, with Hezbollah withdrawing beyond the Litani River,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.

It added that “the gradual withdrawal process will continue in full coordination with the United States,” a key ally and one of the monitors of the ceasefire.

The White House said on Friday that a short, temporary ceasefire extension was urgently needed.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who was head of the US-backed Lebanese army until parliament elected him head of state on January 9, called on the people of the south to exercise self-restraint and trust in the Lebanese military.

“‎Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are nonnegotiable, and I am following up on this issue at the highest levels to ensure your rights and dignity,” he said in a statement.

Aoun spoke on Saturday with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, whose government is also involved in overseeing the truce. According to a statement from his office, Aoun spoke of the “need to oblige Israel to respect the terms of the deal in order to maintain stability in the south.”

Aoun also said Israel must “end its successive violations, including the destruction of border villages… which would prevent the return of residents.”

Macron’s office, in its summary of the conversation, said the French president had called on all parties to the ceasefire to honor their commitments as soon as possible.

The fragile ceasefire has generally held thus far, even as the warring sides have repeatedly traded accusations of violating it.

The IDF has continued to carry out frequent strikes that it says target Hezbollah fighters, and Lebanese state media has reported that Israeli forces have carried out demolitions in villages they control.

The November 27 deal ended two months of full-scale war that followed months of low-intensity exchanges. Hezbollah began near-daily cross-border attacks on northern Israel one day after the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by its Palestinian ally Hamas, which triggered the war in Gaza. Tens of thousands of Israeli residents of the north were displaced by the attacks.

Israel intensified its campaign against Hezbollah in September, launching a series of devastating blows against the group’s leadership and killing its longtime chief Nasrallah before launching a ground invasion in southern Lebanon aimed at diminishing Hezbollah’s capabilities.

Hezbollah warned on Thursday that “any violation of the 60-day deadline will be considered a flagrant violation” of the ceasefire agreement and “an infringement on Lebanese sovereignty.”

The group refrained from any threat to resume attacks on Israel but said the Lebanese state should use “all means necessary… to restore the land and wrest it from the clutches of the occupation.”