Israeli forces set fire to houses in Lebanon despite US-led ceasefire

The Israeli army demolished and burned homes in southern Lebanon, as part of its daily violations of the framework agreement signed between Tel Aviv and Beirut, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency(NNA) reported on Monday.

According to the news agency, Israeli forces were demolishing and burning homes in the southern neighbourhoods of the town of Hadatha.

On Sunday, Israeli forces carried out a large explosion in the southern city of Bint Jbeil.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2, when Israel and the US started a war against Iran, killing its Supreme Leader Ali Hamanei, triggering the Tehran-aligned Shia group Hezbollah to fire missiles on Israeli positions.

The latest developments came despite a ceasefire that has been in effect since November 2024 and a US-sponsored framework agreement signed on June 26, 2026, providing for a phased Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Lebanese territory.

A US military delegation met with Lebanon’s army in Beirut to discuss the implementation of Israel’s withdrawal from a “pilot zone” in occupied territory, a Lebanese military official told AFP on Saturday.

Under a framework agreement reached on June 26, Israel will gradually withdraw from areas of southern Lebanon where it has deployed troops to fight Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia movement.

As part of the agreement, the Lebanese military will take full control of two small areas dubbed pilot zones.

On Saturday, the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA said more than 732,000 people had now returned home, up from 640,000 a week before.

That leaves more than 430,000 still displaced, it added.