Israeli operations expand in southern Lebanon despite ceasefire claims

Report by Amal Shehadeh, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian 

Neither a ceasefire nor any other factor is preventing the Israeli army from expanding its engineering and field operations in southern Lebanon.

The Northern Command has decided to deploy regular and reserve engineering battalions, along with the Yahalom unit, equipped with what are described as unprecedented quantities of explosives, in order to accelerate what it calls the “clearing” of areas it seeks to control.

A military official said a large number of robotic systems will also participate in demolition operations.

Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said on Israel’s Independence Day that the army continues to wage an intensive war against Lebanon.

On the same occasion, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar told several diplomats that Lebanon is a failed state and that Hezbollah is a common enemy of both Lebanon and Israel.

While Israel marked its Independence Day with an aerial display of F-35 fighter jets, the Palestinians of 1948 raised slogans saying, “Your independence is our Nakba (catastrophe).” They also visited villages from which residents were displaced, while preserving religious sites, churches, and mosques that remain as witnesses to their displacement.