Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has called for an end to the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and the full enforcement of the ceasefire, as Israeli shelling and demolitions continue. The prime minister demanded a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory up to its internationally recognised border and the release of all Lebanese detainees. As delegates gathered to listen to Salam, on the ground in Lebanon, Israeli forces carried out a large explosion near Taybeh and Deir Siryan, while an Israeli air strike targeted a valley between Froun and Ghandourieh, triggering a large fire.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Froun, said the reality on the ground is that the conflict is far from over. Lebanese civil defence and firefighters are not being allowed by the Israelis to reach these areas and put out the flames,” she said. Israeli forces are “blowing up people’s homes, despite the framework agreement in which there is supposed to be a ceasefire that they have signed with the Lebanese government,” she said.
Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon have killed at least 4,386 people and wounded 12,407 others since March 2 , when the current Hezbollah-Israel war started. Since then, Israeli forces have occupied up to 600sq km of Lebanese territory up to the Litani River. A US-brokered framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel in June provides for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory and the deployment of the Lebanese army in areas vacated by Israeli forces.
Speaking at the UNGA, Salam said his government had entered into negotiations with Israel, mediated by the United States and President Donald Trump, “to end the war and restore Lebanon’s sovereignty”, adding that the success of any agreement is measured not by intentions but by fulfilment of commitments. He focused on state sovereignty, saying it “cannot be untouchable in one place and negotiable in another, nor can the rules of international law apply to some but not to others”. Salam also pledged to oversee the disarmament of Hezbollah in exchange for Israel’s eventual full withdrawal, also saying “weapons must be exclusively in the hands of the state and that decisions on war and peace rest solely with its constitutional institutions”.
Stability in the Middle East can only come with respect for Palestinian rights, he said.
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