BEIRUT: The cautious calm on Lebanon’s southern border was shaken on Saturday following a series of missile launches and drone operations.
It came on the second day of the temporary truce reached between Israel and Hamas.
The UK Embassy in Lebanon promptly renewed its appeal for calm on X, saying: “The UK echoes UNIFIL’s call for a cessation of hostilities across the Blue Line and for a renewed commitment to implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701.”
The embassy said Friday’s peace on the Blue Line — marking Lebanon’s border with Israel — offered a chance to refocus on long-term solutions.
Developments in the region were also the focus of talks held in Ankara between Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem reacted to banners raised in Beirut and some areas by civil society activists and opposition parties that read “Lebanon does not want war with Israel.”
He said: “We decided to support Gaza through the southern front. We offered dozens of martyrs and sacrifices.
Sheikh Qassem claimed that Hezbollah has inflicted many casualties among Israeli ranks, in addition to displacing about 70,000 settlers, bringing in about 100,000 Israeli soldiers to stand on the border, and forcing Israel to deploy 50 percent of its aviation capacity.
“All of this alleviates the burden on Gaza and affects the course of the battle in the future if it continues.”
Sheikh Qassem said of the Beirut banners: “It is true that we do not want war, but we do not accept surrender.”
He added: “If it turns out that engaging in war through resistance wards off the dangers of Israel, liberates the land, and makes us a real power in the region, we will be with this war that restores independence and dignity to Lebanon and the region, so that Israel does not remain a scarecrow that frightens the Lebanese.”
The Israeli army, meanwhile, fired shots at a Rapid-model vehicle belonging to a Lebanese citizen from the town of Kafrkela in the Wazzani border area, hitting it with five bullets but causing no harm to the driver.
A Lebanese army patrol pulled the man out of the site.
For the second consecutive day, displaced people from border villages returned to inspect their properties and lands after the cessation of the 48-day hostilities between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.
In addition to human losses, the fighting led to the destruction of property on the Lebanese side.
Forests and orchards were damaged by phosphorus shells unleashed by the Israeli army.
Farmers in the Shebaa and Kfar Shuba border areas resumed harvesting olives. The Israeli army fired into the air to intimidate farmers working the land in the Hunin Valley.
Intensive flights by Israeli MK spy aircraft were recorded over the Shebaa Farms, Arqoub, and the Hasbaya area, reaching the airspace of the Western Bekaa and Iqlim Al-Tuffah at medium altitude.
The first violation of the truce was recorded on Friday night.
Israeli media reported “the infiltration of drones and the firing of anti-tank missiles from the Lebanese side to the northern border, resulting in significant losses.”
An interception missile exploded in the airspace of the towns of Mays Al-Jabal and Blida in the Marjayoun district, with the sound echoing throughout the south.
The Israeli media said that alarm sirens sounded in areas of the Galilee to alert residents of drone infiltration from Lebanon.
The Israeli army announced in the morning that it downed a surface-to-air missile launched from Lebanon toward an Israeli drone.
No party claimed responsibility for launching the missile.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said: “Following the alert about the infiltration of an aerial object in the north, an interception missile was launched toward a suspicious aerial target, triggering alarms, and the incident was over.”
