Israeli army continues to break ceasefire agreement in Lebanon by bombing towns & refusing to withdraw from S Lebanon & raids into West Bank intensifies
By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, NNA, The Muslim News):
LEBANON
The Israeli military confirmed Monday that its forces will remain in five posts in southern Lebanon beyond Tuesday, Feb. 18 deadline for withdrawal.
Under a ceasefire deal with Beirut, Israel was supposed to complete its withdrawal from southern Lebanon by Jan. 26, but the deadline was extended to Feb. 18 after Israel refused to comply.
An Israeli military statement said army forces will remain at five strategic posts.
The army said the five positions include a hill near Labouneh; the Jabal Blat peak; a hill across from Avivim and Malkia; a hill across from Margaliot; and a hill across from Metula.
The army said the posts will be manned by Israeli troops, while troops will be withdrawn from all other Lebanese towns and villages.
Israeli Army Radio said the military has already deployed to the five posts where the forces will remain in southern Lebanon in the near future.
It quoted the army as saying that it is preparing for a long-term stay until Hezbollah withdraws north of the Litani River.
The report claimed that maintaining a presence at these sites aims to provide “preemptive and frontline defense for the towns of the Galilee.”
According to the report, the first post is the Salam Mountain range, also known as the Labbouneh area, overlooking the Israeli town of Shlomi. “The location offers a broader view of Lebanese territory,” it said.
The second post is the Blat Mountain range, which overlooks the Israeli towns of Shtula and Zar’it.
Israel also plans to maintain a presence in an area facing Avivim and Al-Malkiyya, with a vantage point over the Ramim mountain range and the Lebanese towns of Aitaroun and Bint Jbeil.
The fourth post consists of a series of hills overlooking Margaliot, considered strategically important for strengthening the region’s defense.
The fifth post is the Hamames Mountain range, which overlooks the Israeli town of Metula and Lebanon’s Khiam area.
In parallel to these positions within Lebanese territory, the Israeli army is also constructing military sites within Israeli territory across each settlement. The army indicated that its troop presence along the Lebanon border will be approximately three times larger than prior to the conflict.
The Israeli army also announced that, as part of the withdrawal agreement, Lebanese citizens will be allowed to return to villages they left in recent months, including Kfarkela, Odaisseh, Houla, and Maiss el-Jabal, it reported.
Last week, Lebanese officials rejected an Israeli demand to remain in five locations in southern Lebanon beyond the withdrawal deadline.
On Sunday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said that Israel must fully withdraw from Lebanon by Feb. 18.
“Today, we are facing the Feb. 18 deadline, and the occupation army must fully withdraw from southern Lebanon. It should have no positions or presence whatsoever,” Qassem said.
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes Monday night on the villages of Tayr Harfa and Aaichiyehin in the Jezzine district, as well as two explosions in the border town of Odaisseh in the Marjayoun district, continuing its breaches of the ceasefire in southern Lebanon just before it is due to leave the area.
The Lebanese National News Agency reported that the Israeli air force launched two strikes targeting the course of the Litani River between the Lahed Bridge and Mahmoudiyeh in Aaichiyehin, Jezzine.
Israeli aircraft also targeted the Ain ez Zarqa area on the outskirts of Tayr Harfa in the southern district of Tyre.
The agency added that Israeli forces set off two blasts in Odaisseh in southern Lebanon’s Marjayoun district.
These airstrikes come just before the Tuesday deadline for Israel to withdraw from towns it occupied in southern Lebanon during its recent military operation, while insisting on maintaining its forces at five border points, most of which are strategic hills overlooking Israeli settlements.
Lebanon said Monday that the suspension of flights to and from Iran has been extended.
A presidency statement said the minister of public works and transport has been assigned “to extend the suspension period of flights to and from Iran.”
“Strict directives have been given to military and security forces to prevent any leniency or tolerance in ensuring that the airport road remains open and public property is protected,” it added.
The extension followed a meeting between President Joseph Aoun and ministers to discuss the situation around the Beirut airport following protests by Hezbollah supporters.
According to the statement, Foreign Minister Youssef Raji was tasked with “following up on diplomatic contacts to address the issue of air travel between Tehran and Beirut and to secure the return of Lebanese passengers still in Iran.”
One person was killed on Monday in an Israeli airstrike targeting a car in Sidon in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese media.
The state news agency NNA said the body of one person was retrieved from a car struck by an Israeli drone on the coastal road in Sidon.
Israel’s Army Radio confirmed that the strike targeted a “prominent military figure in one of the organizations,” without naming the target.
According to Israeli Channel 12, a Hamas military figure was the target of the attack.
A Hamas source confirmed to Anadolu that Mohammad Shahin, a member of the group’s armed wing, was targeted in the Israeli attack.
GAZA
Palestinian medics and rescue teams recovered nine more bodies from the rubble in the Gaza Strip, pushing the overall death toll from Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023 to 48,284, the Health Ministry said on Monday.
A ministry statement said that the toll also included four Palestinians killed by Israeli army fire in the last 24 hours.
According to the ministry, 16 injured people were also admitted to hospitals, taking the number of the injured to 111,709 in the Israeli onslaught.
“Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” the ministry said.
The Government Media Office has updated its death toll to at least 61,709 people, saying thousands of Palestinians missing under the rubble are now presumed dead.
Palestinians killed in Gaza: More than 61,700 (48,270 confirmed plus 14,222 missing and presumed dead)
A ceasefire agreement has been in place in Gaza since Jan. 19, pausing the Israeli war that has caused widespread destruction and left the Palestinian enclave in ruins.
Despite the ceasefire, the Gaza local authorities reported almost daily ceasefire violations by the Israeli army.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he would not allow the Hamas group or the Palestinian Authority to take control of the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of Tel Aviv’s war on the enclave.
“As I promised, the day after the war in Gaza, neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority will be there,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
The Israeli premier said he is “committed to (US) President (Donald) Trump’s plan to create a different Gaza.”
Trump has repeatedly called for taking over Gaza and resettling its population to redevelop it into what he called “the Riviera of the Middle East.” The idea has been vehemently rejected by the Arab world and many other nations, who say it amounts to ethnic cleansing.
WEST BANK
Israeli forces shot and injured a Palestinian boy on Monday during clashes in the village of Til near Nablus, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The organization said its teams transferred the boy, 17, to a hospital for treatment of an injured shoulder.
The official news agency, Wafa, reported that several Palestinians suffered from suffocation during the Israeli forces’ raid on the village, which involved the use of live ammunition and tear gas canisters.
Separately, Ameen Dossouqi, an activist and Burqa village council member, told Anadolu that Israeli soldiers stormed the village’s main mosque during the afternoon prayer.
“The soldiers detained and interrogated the mosque’s imam as he was preparing to lead the prayer,” Dossouqi said.
He added that stun grenades and smoke bombs were thrown near the mosque, causing several people to suffer from suffocation, with some treated on-site.
The Israeli army has killed at least 55 people and displaced thousands in the northern West Bank since Jan. 21.
Several Palestinians suffered from suffocation on Monday evening during the Israeli occupation forces incursion of the town of Qusra, south of Nablus, according to local sources.
They said that the Israeli forces stormed Qusra, amidst heavy shooting and tear gas bombs, causing several suffocation cases among local residents, including members of a family inside their home, who were subsequently transferred to a medical center.
Israeli soldier stormed al-Khader, a town south of Bethlehem, Wafa news agency reports.
Israeli troops fired sound bombs and toxic gas at nearby homes and shops. No casualties have been reported so far, the agency said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society says Israeli soldiers assaulted one of its ambulance staff in the besieged Jenin camp.
The attack occurred after the crew tried to reach a person in need of medical assistance.
Last month, Israel’s army launched a major assault in the Jenin area, dubbed the “Iron Wall”, almost immediately after a ceasefire was declared in Gaza.
Israeli occupation forces escalated their aggression on the city of Tulkarm and its camp, which has continued for the 22nd consecutive day, and the ninth day on the Nour Shams camp.
WAFA correspondent reported that the occupation forces sent military reinforcements of heavy machinery and bulldozers to the city and its camps and began extensively bulldozing streets and vandalizing property.
In the eastern neighborhood of Tulkarm, especially in the area of the Muqata’a Street until the Abu Safiya intersection and the municipal slaughterhouse, the occupation forces bulldozed the streets in those areas, and caused massive destruction to the infrastructure, trees and vehicles, and closed some entrances with earth mounds.
In a later development, the Israeli forces tightened their siege on the eastern neighborhood this evening, preventing its residents from leaving their homes, forcing shop owners to close their shops, pursuing citizens, detaining them, checking their identities, interrogating them in the field, and abusing them.
In Tulkarm camp, the occupation forces continued to bulldoze streets and houses, causing extensive damage, in addition to burning houses in Al-Samran neighborhood, including the house of the martyr Wassim Anbar, while hearing sounds of gunfire and explosions.
Eyewitnesses told WAFA that the situation in Tulkarm camp was becoming increasingly difficult, amid a state of fear and panic that has afflicted the residents who remained in their homes on the outskirts, especially in Al-Matar neighborhood, in addition to a severe shortage of basic and necessary supplies such as food, water, medicine and milk.
Eyewitnesses added that the occupation forces pursue anyone who leaves his home or tries to return to the camp, and shoot at him, and direct drones towards him to photograph him.
They confirmed that nothing inside the camp remains the same, as the Israeli forces deliberately destroy the contents of the homes and throw everything inside them outside, including electrical appliances, furniture and clothes, with systematic sabotage and destruction of all aspects of life in the camp.
In the same context, the occupation forces continued their suffocating siege of Nour Shams camp, which included additional destruction of the infrastructure completely, extensive raids on homes and vandalism of their contents, demolition and bulldozing of other homes in the neighborhoods of Al-Manshiya, Al-Jami’, Al-Joura, Al-Shuhada, and Al-Madaris, and closing the entrances to homes and shops with barriers and rubble.
These attacks coincided with the Israeli forces firing live ammunition and bombings from time to time, and low-flying reconnaissance aircraft.
The occupation forces had set up a checkpoint on Nablus Street connecting Tulkarm and Nour Shams camps, stopped vehicles, checked the identities of their passengers, interrogated them, and detained a number of them. They also raided and searched homes in the area, seized two homes and turned them into military barracks.
Today, relief efforts continued from the competent authorities in Tulkarm, who worked to deliver food, medicine and water to a number of families trapped inside Nour Shams camp, in light of the difficult circumstances they are experiencing due to the occupation’s aggression.
The Red Crescent crews also evacuated a number of elderly and sick people from the camp, and took them to shelters in the governorate.
Israeli occupation forces uprooted dozens of olive and almond seedlings from the lands of the town of Nahalin, west of Bethlehem.
Local sources reported that an occupation army force, accompanied by illegal Israeli settlers and a bulldozer, stormed the Kabarat area west of the town, and uprooted dozens of olive and almond seedlings belonging to a number of the town’s residents.
Israeli occupation forces today stormed the village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah.
The head of the Al-Mughayyir village council, Amin Abu Aliya, told WAFA that the occupation forces stormed the village while firing sound bombs and tear gas towards Palestinian local residents. However, no injuries or detentions were reported.
He added that the Israeli forces raided several houses in the village, including the house of the young man Ahmed Fadl Abu Aliya, and asked his family to surrender their son.
In a related context, Abu Aliya stated that the occupation forces detained the two young men at the intersection of the illegal colony of Carmelo near the village of Taybeh, east of Ramallah.
Israeli occupation forces stormed the village of Burqa, northwest of Nablus on Monday evening and raided a mosque, according to security sources.
They said that the Israeli forces stormed the village of Burqa, raided one of the mosques, fired a sound bomb at the door of the mosque during the afternoon prayer, stopped the prayer, and interrogated the worshipers.
Israeli occupation forces today seized a concrete mixer and pump from Haris village, west of Salfit, according to eyewitnesses.
They told WAFA that the occupation forces stormed the village and seized a concrete pump and mixer while it was working in a citizen’s house, and forced its owner to empty the concrete load on the ground.
Israeli forces Monday detained a Jerusalemite activist and his wife in the town of Issawiya, northeast of occupied Jerusalem.
Local sources reported that the occupation forces pursued the Jerusalemite activist, Mohammad Abu al-Hummus, and detained him and his wife for several hours at the eastern entrance to the town of Issawiya.
The occupation forces bulldozed a land belonging to local resident Farouk Mustafa, confiscated his machinery and equipment, and stormed his house.
The Israeli forces stormed the town this morning and closed its entrances.
Settlers Monday grazed their sheep on agricultural lands in Ras Al-Auja area, north of Jericho and the Jordan Valley Governorate.
Arif Daraghmeh, a human rights activist in the Jordan Valley, explained to WAFA that settlers from the colonial outposts near the Al-Auja spring grazed their sheep on the crops of the residents of the Ain Al-Auja agricultural community, north of the city of Jericho.
He pointed out that the settlers have intensified their restrictions on citizens in Bedouin communities in Al-Auja during the current year, in order to exploit the water and displace the residents.
[Photo: Displaced Palestinians gather around a fire to stay warm in a makeshift tent camp set up among the ruins in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, on February 17, 2025, following the ceasefire. The cold weather and dire living conditions continue to severely affect residents who have been forced to live in temporary shelters after their homes were destroyed by Israeli bombings. Photojournalist: Ashraf Amra/AA]
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