Conditions 'not yet in place' for safe return of Lebanese: UN officials
Lebanese people displaced by Israel’s invasion of the country cannot yet safely return to their homes in southern villages as the regime has not met a deadline for its withdrawal set under a 60-day ceasefire deal, which expired Sunday, UN officials warn.
On Sunday, Israeli forces opened fire on Lebanese people returning to their villages, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 80 others, according to an updated toll by the country’s health ministry.
In the wake of the attack on civilians, United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaertand UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro said in a joint statement that “conditions are not yet in place for the safe return of citizens to their villages along the Blue Line.”
“Displaced communities, already facing a long road to recovery and reconstruction, are therefore once again being called on to exercise caution.”
“The fact is that the timelines envisaged in the November Understanding have not been met,” the UN officials said.
A truce deal reached between Israel and Hezbollah in November stipulated that Israeli forces must leave Lebanon before January 26.
The deal, brokered by the United States and France, ended over nearly 70 days of Israel's offensive on the country and gave Israel 60 days to pull out its forces from the occupied towns and hand over control to the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers.
Despite the ceasefire, the regime’s forces invaded dozens of new areas across southern Lebanon in the first 40 days of the deal, according to a recent Washington Post review of previously unreported satellite data and open-source imagery.
Israel’s military forces, it said, launched near-daily strikes on areas in southern Lebanon during that period.
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