The deadly violence recorded by health officials Sunday came as residents tried to return home as Israel was scheduled to pull its troops from southern Lebanon.
The deal that took effect on November 27 said the Lebanese military was to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period that ends on Sunday.
Lebanon’s health ministry said on Sunday that Israeli forces opened fire on “citizens who were trying to return to their villages that are still under (Israeli) occupation”.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its “troops operating in southern Lebanon fired warning shots to remove threats” where “suspects were identified approaching the troops”.
AFP journalists said convoys of vehicles carrying hundreds of people, some flying yellow Hezbollah flags, were trying to get to several border villages.
A joint statement from the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the head of the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission acknowledged that “conditions are not yet in place for the safe return of citizens to their villages”.
An AFP correspondent saw hundreds of people gather for a collective prayer on a main road in the border town of Bint Jbeil, followed by a march to some nearby villages.
Some held up portraits of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, slain in an Israeli attack in late September, while women dressed in black carried photos of family members killed in the war.
The group also called on the backers of the ceasefire agreement -- which includes the United States and France -- to “assume their responsibilities in the face of these violations and crimes of the Israeli enemy”.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee had issued a message earlier on Sunday to residents of more than 60 villages in southern Lebanon telling them not to return.
The Lebanese army said earlier it would “continue to accompany residents” returning to the south and “protect them from Israeli attacks”.
Israeli forces have left coastal areas of southern Lebanon but are still present in areas further east.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday that the “agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the Lebanese state”, so the military’s withdrawal would continue beyond the Sunday deadline.
The truce has generally held since November, despite repeated accusations of violations.
Hezbollah began trading cross-border fire with the Israeli military the day after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by its Palestinian ally Hamas, which triggered the war in Gaza.
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