Israel, Hezbollah accuse each other of violating ceasefire

 

Lina Rida Jawhari cries as she sits amid the rubble of her family's destroyed house in Baalbek, Lebanon, on Nov. 28, 2024.

Israel and Hezbollah accused each other Thursday of violating a day-old ceasefire agreement intended to bring an end to more than one year of fighting.

The Israeli military said its air force struck a facility Thursday used by the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hezbollah to store midrange rockets in southern Lebanon.

Israel also said it opened fire Thursday toward what it characterized as “suspects” with vehicles arriving at several areas in the southern zone, calling it a violation of the truce.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah, meanwhile, accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire.

“The Israeli enemy is attacking those returning to the border villages,” Fadlallah told reporters. “There are violations today by Israel, even in this form.”

The Lebanese army also accused Israel of violating the deal. “The Israeli enemy violated the deal several times,” the army said, citing airstrikes and attacks on Lebanese territory with “various weapons.”

The ceasefire took effect early Wednesday. Accusations from both sides underscore the deal’s fragility.

Palestinian women react outside a hospital following an Israeli airstrike in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip on Nov. 28, 2024.

Israel strikes Gaza targets

Israeli military strikes killed at least 26 Palestinians across the besieged Gaza Strip Thursday, according to medical officials.

The deaths came as forces increased their bombardment of central parts of Gaza and tanks pushed deeper into the enclave’s north and south.

Six people were killed in separate airstrikes on a house and near the hospital of Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahiya in the north of Gaza. Four others were killed when an Israeli strike hit a motorcycle in Khan Younis in Gaza’s south.

Later Thursday, an Israeli airstrike near a tent encampment housing displaced families in Khan Younis killed at least five people and injured others, according to medics.

In the refugee camp Nuseirat, Israeli planes carried out multiple airstrikes that killed at least 11 people, according to health officials at a hospital in the camp. The attacks destroyed a multistory building and hit roads outside mosques.

Dozens of families were trapped in their homes after tanks advanced from the northern area of the camp, and some ambulances were unable to reach them because of tank fire, the health officials said in a statement.

The Israeli military told Reuters that its forces were continuing to “strike terror targets as part of the operational activity in the Gaza Strip.”

Israeli tanks also pushed deeper into the northwest area of Rafah, near the border with Egypt, according to residents.

Israel has not commented on the latest fighting.

The Lebanon truce has made the sense of suffering feel all the more severe for some inside Gaza.

“I hope a ceasefire will happen like it did in Lebanon. … I just want to take my children to see my land, my house, to see what they did to us. I want to live in safety,” Amal Abu Hmeid, a displaced woman in Gaza, told Reuters.

"God willing, we will have a truce." she said.

Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

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