Strikes, shelling and demolitions in south Lebanon: Latest developments
Israeli strikes and shelling targeted overnight into Thursday Houla, Markaba, Wadi Slouqi, Qabrikha, al-Mansouri, Majdalzoun, Ali al-Taher and Touline, as troops carried out detonations in Zawtar al-Sahrqiyeh, Majdalzoun, al-Mansouri and al-Khiam.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon handed meanwhile one of its positions near al-Khardali to the Lebanese Army.
UNIFIL's mission ends this year. It now counts some 7,500 personnel from nearly 50 countries and has been in place since 1978. There is a French-Italian initiative to set up a force to replace UNIFIL, alongside Lebanon's army.
A framework agreement reached in June between Israel and Lebanon calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region.
Despite a lull in fighting, Israel has kept up intermittent strikes and heavy demolition operations in south Lebanon, where its forces are operating in a strip of territory around 10 kilometers deep inside the Lebanese border.
All Hezbollah had to do was say "we are removing our people and handing over all our positions to the government of the Republic of Lebanon and its Lebanese Armed Forces". It did not. "Resistance" against the will of the Lebanese people has consequences. It is too bad; and it has been too bad for a very long time. That was "yesterday".