Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire ‘offers a vital break’, says UN official
Imran Riza, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, is calling for “continuous international engagement and robust monitoring to establish stability” in the country following last week’s truce between Israel and Hezbollah.
“While the ceasefire offers a vital break, it remains delicate,” Riza said during a visit to the Nabatieh governorate, expressing concern over “violations in certain areas and ongoing tensions along the border”.
He said an estimated 600,000 displaced people are starting to return to their homes, with two-thirds of the figure heading to Nabatieh as well as South Lebanon governorate.
But the return process “is not without significant challenges”, Riza noted, as the two governorates have “experienced an overwhelming level of destruction, with tens of thousands of buildings either partially or completely destroyed”.
He went on to call for unhindered and swift humanitarian access, as well as sustained funding and donor support to help Lebanon recover.
Israel’s buffer zone, created by bombing Lebanon with white phosphorous
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/12/5/israel-buffer-zone-created-by-bombing-lebanon-with-white-phosphorus
Israel has intensively used white phosphorus on a strip in southern Lebanon that matches a zone its army has marked as a red “no go” zone on maps it distributes to Lebanese people, telling them not to return to their homes there.
More than 918 hectares (2,268 acres) have been hit in 191 attacks using the controversial munition since October 8, 2023, according to data collected by Lebanese researcher Ahmad Baydoun and environmental activist group Green Southerners.
Israel claims it uses white phosphorus munitions to create a smokescreen on the battlefield, yet rights groups say it has deployed it over populated areas, not battlefields, in both Gaza and Lebanon – which violates international humanitarian law.
A shell that appears to be white phosphorus explodes over a house in the Lebanese village of al-Bustan on October 15, 2023
French officials arrive in Beirut for ceasefire implementation talks
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati has received a French delegation in Beirut for talks on the implementation of a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, the country’s National News Agency (NNA) has reported.
France, along with the US, is one of the five-member committee in charge of monitoring, verifying and helping enforce the truce agreed last week.
Mikati received the French ambassador to Lebanon, Herve Magro and France’s representative to the committee, Brigadier General Guillaume Ponchin, NNA reported.
“The priorities of the Lebanese position are the ceasefire, the Israeli violations, the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Lebanese territory, and strengthening the deployment of the army in the south,” the prime minister said.
The meeting comes as the fragile ceasefire has already been violated repeatedly. France accused Israel of breaching the truce at least 52 times following which Hezbollah launched a volley of projectiles into Israel.
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