BEIRUT: The Israeli army fired a warning shot on Tuesday at a joint patrol of the Lebanese army and a Polish unit operating under UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL while trying to unblock the Aitaroun-Bint Jbeil public road.
The Israeli military blocked the road last Thursday with a mound of earth.
UNIFIL and Lebanese army vehicles were seen on Tuesday driving on the Bint Jbeil road for the first time since the ceasefire.
Israel is being criticized for continuing to violate the ceasefire agreement under the pretext of having 60 days to withdraw from the south.
Its violations involve destroying remaining buildings, houses, facilities and roads along the border, rendering the area unlivable.
The Israeli army carried out extensive explosions in Khiam to destroy houses and buildings.
The entry of the Lebanese army’s engineering teams to southern Lebanon has been postponed. A five-member committee responsible for enforcing the ceasefire agreement had previously approved the teams’ entry.
The committee convened secretly on Monday in Naqoura, UNIFIL’s headquarters, with the presence of military representatives of the Lebanese army, the Israeli army, the US, France, and UNIFIL.
A joint statement from the US and French embassies in Lebanon and UNIFIL said that the meeting aimed to coordinate the participants’ support for the cessation of hostilities that went into effect on Nov. 27.
The group will meet regularly and coordinate closely to implement the ceasefire agreement and Resolution 1701, it added.
The Lebanese army links the gradual deployment of its soldiers south of the Litani River to the end of Israeli hostilities and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli military forces, allowing Lebanese troops to enter the areas.
Israeli forces in the south launched several artillery shells from a Merkava tank on the outskirts of Chihine and Jebbayn.
The Israeli army opened heavy machine-gun fire on the outskirts of the southern villages of Chakra, the Doubiyeh castle, and valleys adjacent to Qabrikha and Majdel Selem.
Several Israeli Merkava tanks backed off from Wata Al-Khiam toward Sarda and Aamra adjacent to the Wazzani orchards.
Parallel to its duties in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army is also dealing with the developments at illegal crossings and on smuggling routes on the border between Lebanon and Syria, as Syrians attempt to enter Lebanon forcibly with militants gaining control of the country.
Israeli airstrikes had targeted Lebanon’s land crossings with Syria under the pretext of preventing Hezbollah supplies from reaching Syria.
The Israeli airstrikes also put out of service the Al-Qaa-Jussiyeh crossing in the Bekaa and the Arida and Dabousieh crossings in the north, in addition to the Tal Kalakh crossing in Akkar in the north.
Lebanon’s reopening of the Masnaa border crossing, the legal route to Damascus, facilitates the return of Syrian refugees in Lebanon to their home country.
For the third consecutive day, the Masnaa border crossing witnessed heavy movement of Syrian refugees leaving for their country.
The Lebanese General Security reported that the situation at the Masnaa crossing had improved after chaos erupted due to the absence of the Syrian General Security at the Jdeidet Yabous border post, causing a large influx of Syrians.
The Lebanese army is involved in controlling the Masnaa border crossing, and Lebanon strictly vets which Syrians it allows to enter Lebanon — requiring either a travel document through the Beirut airport, a residency permit in Lebanon, or a sponsor who confirms their employment in Lebanon.
Also on Tuesday, the Syrian Embassy in Lebanon lowered the flag previously used by the regime of Bashar Assad, raising that of the militants.
In other developments, Lebanese prisoner Muath Muraab arrived in his hometown of Bireh in Akkar on Tuesday after being detained in Sednaya Prison for 20 years.
He is the third prisoner to return to Lebanon from a list of dozens of Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons, whose existence had previously been denied by Syrian authorities during the Assad regime.
In the past two days, freed prisoners Suhail Hamaoui, Marwan Nouh, Mohammed Omar Al-Flaiti, and Moaz Merheb rejoined their families.
Additionally, Khalidiya Fayyad, who was arrested 22 years ago in the town of Sindiana in Akkar, was freed from the women’s prison.
The Lebanese State Security denied protecting anyone linked to the former Syrian regime after their relocation to Lebanon.
Recent media reports indicated that the Lebanese State Security was protecting some Syrian figures and officials who fled to major hotels in Lebanon due to ongoing developments in Syria.
Hezbollah — in its first statement regarding the Israeli airstrikes on Syria and the incursion into Syrian territory — emphasized its “support for Syria and its people, asserting the importance of maintaining the unity of Syria, both in terms of its land and its people.”
Hezbollah said that “the continuing crimes committed by Israel, whether by occupying more lands in the Golan Heights or striking and destroying the defensive capabilities of the Syrian state, constitute a flagrant act of aggression and a brazen violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian state and its people, and an attempt to destabilize this brotherly country.”
