Israeli troops killed 22 people in south Lebanon yesterday including a soldier, health officials said, as residents tried to return home on the day Israel was meant to withdraw under a truce deal.The withdrawal deadline is part of a ceasefire agreement reached two months ago that ended Israel’s war with Hezbollah, which had left the Lebanese group weakened.The deal that took effect on November 27 said the Lebanese army was to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period that ended yesterday.The parties have traded blame for the delay in implementing the agreement, and on Friday Israel said it would keep troops across the border in south Lebanon beyond the pullout date.Lebanon’s health ministry said yesterday that Israeli forces opened fire on “citizens who were trying to return to their villages that are still under (Israeli) occupation”.It said 22 people including six women and a soldier were killed and 124 more wounded. The Lebanese army also announced the soldier’s death and said another had been wounded.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”. It added that “a number of suspects… that posed an imminent threat to the troops were apprehended”.AFP journalists said convoys of vehicles carrying hundreds of people, some flying yellow Hezbollah flags, were trying to get to several border villages.“We will return to our villages and the Israeli enemy will leave,” even if it costs lives, said Ali Harb, a 27-year-old trying to go to Kfar Kila.A joint statement from the UN special co-ordinator 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.Residents could also be seen heading on foot and by motorbike towards the devastated border town of Mays al-Jabal, where Israeli troops are still stationed.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.Hezbollah hailed a “glorious day” and praised residents’ “deep attachment to their land” in a statement on Sunday.The group also called on the backers of the ceasefire agreement — which includes the US and France — to “assume their responsibilities in the face of these violations and crimes of the Israeli enemy”.Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati earlier called on the foreign mediators “to force the Israeli enemy to withdraw”.Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee had issued a message earlier yesterday to residents of more than 60 villages in southern Lebanon telling them not to return.Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, the former army chief who took office earlier this month, called on residents to keep a cool head and “trust the Lebanese army” which sought their safe return home. In a statement late yesterday, the Lebanese army said 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.The ceasefire deal stipulates that Hezbollah pull back its forces north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometres from the border — and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south. 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 deadline yesterday.
