UN: Conditions ‘not yet in place for safe return’ of Lebanese citizens to border villages

Pro-Hezbollah protesters carry a flag and wear scarves bearing an image of slain terror leader Hasan Nasrallah as they gather in Burj al-Muluk on January 26, 2025, behind an Israeli roadblock across a road leading to their village in southern Lebanon (Rabih DAHER / AFP)
Pro-Hezbollah protesters carry a flag and wear scarves bearing an image of slain terror leader Hasan Nasrallah as they gather in Burj al-Muluk on January 26, 2025, behind an Israeli roadblock across a road leading to their village in southern Lebanon (Rabih DAHER / AFP)

Residents cannot yet safely return to border areas in southern Lebanon, the UN says, after the Israel Defense Forces said troops opened fire at civilians and Hezbollah supporters trying to return to villages the Israeli military had not withdrawn from.

Lebanese officials have said four people have been killed, including a soldier, and more than 30 have been wounded by the Israeli fire.

“As seen tragically this morning, conditions are not yet in place for the safe return of citizens to their villages along the Blue Line,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon says in a joint statement with the head of the UN’s peacekeeping mission.

A ceasefire signed in late November that ended the 2023-2024 war between Hezbollah and Israel, sparked by the terror group, stipulated that Israeli forces would withdraw today as the Iran-backed terror group’s weapons and fighters are removed from southern Lebanon and the Lebanese army deploys.

But Israel said the terms had not been fully enforced by the Lebanese state, meaning Israeli troops would stay beyond today, without saying for how long.

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