The Lebanese Army clearing the main roads in the village of Rubb Thalathin, located in the Marjayoun district. (Photo provided by Muntasser Abdallah)
BEIRUT — Residents of Rubb Thalathin were finally able to return home on Monday after the Lebanese Army completed road-clearing operations in the Marjayoun district village the day before. Over the weekend, the army announced its troops were also deployed in Tallousa and Bani Hayyane, in the same district.
Armor patrols are set up in these three villages' roads, with work underway to clear roadblocks and debris, and demining operations launched in homes and along main roads. The villages' municipal authorities are still urging residents not to return home until the area is fully secured and its deemed clear of explosive devices. Last week, a father, two of his children and his friend were killed when a couch rigged with explosives in their home detonated.
The Israeli army still occupies several villages in southern Lebanon. According to the initial terms of the Nov. 27 cease-fire agreement, Israel should have completely withdrawn from Lebanese territory by Jan. 26. However, Israel asked for and was granted an extension until Feb. 18. On Monday, Israeli forces targeted Tallet al-Hamames, south of Khiam, and Wadi al-Assafir with machine-gun fire. The Israeli army also continued its demolitions in Mais al-Jabal.
In Bint Jbeil district, Israeli soldiers accompanied by tanks advanced on the village of Aita al-Shaab, where they blockaded a road with earth and withdrew. In the village of Yaroun, where the Lebanese Army is partially deployed, Israeli soldiers opened fire on a house in the al-Sawana neighborhood and then stormed inside.
Hezbollah flags
The Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, published a video on X showing men getting out of a car and waving Hezbollah flags, claiming they were members of Hezbollah who had removed a Lebanese flag from an electricity pole in the Bint Jbeil village of Yarine.
"Here's the true face of Hezbollah!" he wrote. "Party members remove the Lebanese flag and patriotic symbols from the streets. Lebanon does not concern them, and the Lebanese flag doesn't exist in their dictionary." During the war between Hezbollah and Israel, the latter made a concerted effort to pit Hezbollah and its popular base against the rest of the country, most notably in a speech given by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he told Lebanese to "Stand up and take your country back.”
On Monday, Hezbollah held a ceremony in honor of several of its fighters killed in battles against Israel in the village of Khiam, which was the site of intense ground fighting during Israel's invasion in early October 2024. The ceremony was attended by Hezbollah MP Ali Fayad, several local and religious authorities, and a crowd of supporters from the locality and surrounding areas.
"As the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said: 'If you want to threaten us, we will threaten you, and if you want to execute your threats, we will execute ours. Therefore, the Americans will think twice before acting,'" Hezbollah MP Hassan Ezzeddine said in tribute to one of the fallen fighters. "The United States does not believe in human value and treats humans as numbers, to buy, sell, and make deals," said the elected parliamentarian from Kfour (Nabatieh). His comments came as U.S. President Donald Trump had expressed his willingness to buy the Gaza Strip.
In the Sour district village of Qana, Hussein Jeshi, a member of Hezbollah's parliamentary group, also paid tribute to fallen fighters, which were in the hundreds before Israel escalated its bombing campaign and killing more than 3,000, mostly civilians. "It's the Resistance, not international resolutions, that protects the land, its inhabitants, and their honor," he said, while still insisting that "the state today is obliged to put an end to the enemy's aggressions and its withdrawal, through international bodies responsible for overseeing the cease-fire."
"In case of failure," he said, referring to the new cease-fire deadline and Israel's obligations, "our proud people and the Resistance will not remain passive in the face of occupation and its aggressions."
On the Lebanese-Syrian border
The Israeli army announced that it had targeted in an airstrike a tunnel it claims was used by Hezbollah for arms smuggling in the north of the country, along the Syria-Lebanon border. The Israeli army also claimed responsibility for attacks against "several other Hezbollah sites" in Lebanon, despite the ongoing cease-fire.
While the U.S. and Israel made a side-agreement to the cease-fire deal stating that the latter could respond to any threat it perceives from Lebanese territory, advocacy groups are calling into question whether upward of 855 cease-fire violations can still be considered "self defense." More than 60 people have been killed by Israel since the cease-fire came into effect.
The Lebanese Army continued its deployment in the border region north of Hermel district, where there have been violent clashes between Lebanese clans and Syria's new army, which launched an "extensive campaign" on Thursday to combat the remaining fixtures of Hezbollah's supply route through Syria. The party had stated in early January that its supply route was largely cut off following the fall of the Assad regime. Lebanese clans reportedly withdrew from the area in which the Lebanese Army is now deployed in large numbers.
Reporting contributed by L'Orient Today's correspondents in the Bekaa and in the South, Sarah Abdallah and Muntasser Abdallah.
