Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday visited Lebanese troops positions and U.N. peacekeeper posts in southern Lebanon, touring the region from which Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants are supposed to withdraw under a nearly month-old ceasefire agreement.
Mikati praised the role of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) after meeting with UNIFIL commanders, and began his tour with a visit to a Lebanese army barracks.
He highlighted the need for Israeli troops to withdraw from Lebanon, saying the Lebanese military would then be able to carry out its tasks.
The ceasefire agreement calls for Lebanese troops to deploy in southern Lebanon as Israeli and Hezbollah forces leave.
Israeli troops entered the country at the end of September as part of an offensive aimed at pushing Hezbollah back from the border. The incursion was part of a significant intensification of the conflict, which had included lower-level cross-border attacks since the October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Since the ceasefire with Hezbollah, Israeli forces have focused on the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza medics said Monday that Israeli airstrikes killed at least 20 people overnight.
U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said Monday that Israel continues to strike densely populated areas in Gaza, “including on areas where Israeli forces have ordered people to move, causing destruction, displacement and death.”
Israeli officials have previously responded to similar assessments by blaming Hamas for operating in populated areas.
Fletcher expressed concern about the ability to get aid into Gaza and into the hands of those in need, saying northern Gaza has been under “a near-total siege for more than two months.”
He said Israeli authorities have denied meaningful access to humanitarian workers, and that local gangs inside Gaza have engaged in “systematic armed looting of our supplies.”
“We deal with tough places to deliver humanitarian support. But Gaza is currently the most dangerous, in a year when more humanitarians have been killed than any on record,” Fletcher said.
Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in their October 2023 attack on southern Israel and took about 250 others hostage. There are still around 100 hostages still being held in Gaza, and at least one-third of them are believed to be dead.
Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 45,200 people, according to the Gaza health ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and fighters in its count.
Hamas and Hezbollah have been designated as terror organizations by the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
