Israeli strikes kill shepherd in Lebanon; tensions threaten ceasefire

Israeli forces carried out several new drone and artillery strikes in Lebanon on Tuesday, including a deadly strike that the Health Ministry and state media said killed a shepherd, further shaking a tenuous ceasefire meant to end more than a year of fighting with Hezbollah.

The shooting came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed keep striking with an iron fist against perceived Hezbollah violations of the truce. His defence minister warned that if the ceasefire collapses, Israel will target not just Hezbollah but the Lebanese state an expansion of Israel's campaign.

Since it began last Wednesday, the US- and French-brokered 60-day ceasefire has been rattled by near daily Israeli strikes, although Israel has been vague about the purported Hezbollah violations that prompted them.

On Monday, it was shaken by its biggest test yet. Hezbollah fired two projectiles toward an Israeli-held disputed border zone, its first volley since the ceasefire began, saying it was a warning in response to Israel's strikes. Israel responded with its heaviest barrage of the past week, killing 10 people.

On Tuesday, drone strikes hit four places in southern Lebanon, one of them killing the shepherd in the town of Shebaa, the state-run National News Agency said. The Health Ministry confirmed the death. Shebaa is situated within a region of border villages where the Israeli military has warned Lebanese civilians not to return, with Israeli troops still present.

Israeli forces also fired an artillery shell and burst of weapons fire in two other areas, the news agency reported.

With Tuesday's death, Israeli strikes since the ceasefire began have killed at least 15 people.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah is supposed to withdraw its fighters, weapons and infrastructure from a broad swath of the south by the end of the initial 60-day phase, pulling them north of the Litani River. Israeli troops are also to pull back to their side of the border.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said any violations of the agreement would be met with a maximum response and zero tolerance.

Speaking to troops on Israel's northern border Tuesday, he said if the war resumes, Israel will widen its strikes beyond the areas where Hezbollah's activities are concentrated, and there will no longer be an exemption for the state of Lebanon.

The ceasefire ended 14 months of war between Israel and Hezbollah, capped by an intensified Israeli bombardment since late September and ground invasion that killed hundreds of Hezbollah members and civilians in Lebanon and sent more than 1.4 million fleeing their homes. Throughout that fighting, Israel largely refrained from striking critical infrastructure or the Lebanese armed forces, who kept to the sidelines.

Israel has said its aim is to push Hezbollah away from the border to allow the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis forced to evacuate from the north since Hezbollah began firing into Israel in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza.

At the moment we are in a ceasefire, I note a ceasefire, not the end of the war. We have a clear goal to return the residents, to rehabilitate the north, Netanyahu said at the start of the government meeting Tuesday.

We are enforcing this ceasefire with an iron fist, acting against any violation, minor or major, he said.

Lebanese officials have accused Israel of violating the ceasefire dozens of times with strikes, overflights of drones and demolitions of homes. When Israel has issued statements about its strikes, it says they were done because of hostile actions by Hezbollah that posed a threat to Israeli civilians, without specifying their nature.

The United States military announced last week that Major General Jasper Jeffers alongside senior US envoy Amos Hochstein will co-chair a US-led committee that is supposed to monitor the ceasefire and ensure adherence to it. The committee also includes France, the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL, Lebanon, and Israel.

Hochstein led over a year of shuttle diplomacy to broker the ceasefire deal, and his role will be temporary until a permanent civilian co-chair is appointed.

Under the deal, the Lebanese army and UNIFIL are to increase their presence in south Lebanon to ensure Hezbollah does not return.

The Lebanese army, which is supported by the US but has suffered severe financial strains in recent years, launched a recruitment drive Tuesday. The military currently has about 80,000 troops, with around 5,000 of them deployed in the south.