Beirut, Lebanon/Jerusalem, Israel
Reuters
Israel on Monday told residents of south Lebanon to stay out of a belt of territory at the border and not to approach the area of the Litani River, entrenching its grip over southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.
The US-mediated, 10-day ceasefire took effect on Thursday, largely halting the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah that spiralled out of the conflict between the United States and Iran.
Residents drive home following a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, in Nabatieh, Lebanon, on 18th April, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
But it remains fragile, with Israeli troops occupying territory deep in the south, aiming to create a buffer zone to shield northern Israel from Hezbollah attack, while the group says it maintains the “right to resist” Israeli occupation.
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that Washington was making an effort to extend the ceasefire agreed by the Israeli and Lebanese governments, after he met the US ambassador to Lebanon.
Following the highest level contacts in decades between Israel and Lebanon last week, a US State Department spokesperson said Washington would host a second round of ambassador-level talks between Lebanon and Israel on Thursday. Hezbollah strongly opposes the contacts.
Maps delineate area of Israeli occupation
Hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on 2nd March, when the Lebanese group opened fire in support of Tehran, sparking an Israeli offensive that led Israel to invade the south and which authorities say killed nearly 2,300 people in Lebanon.
The Israeli military posted a map on social media with a red line through 21 villages across the south, and said residents should not move into the area between it and the border. It said Israeli troops were maintaining positions in the south “in the face of ongoing terrorist activities” by Hezbollah.
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ISRAELI SOLDIER’S DESECRATION OF CRUCIFIX IN SOUTH LEBANON DRAWS CONDEMNATION
A photo showing the desecration of a crucifix smashed by an Israeli soldier in a southern Lebanese village home to Christians drew widespread condemnation on Monday from Israeli leaders, the United States and church leaders.
A photo that emerged online over the weekend shows a soldier taking the blunt side of an axe to a fallen sculpture of Jesus on the cross. It was posted by Younis Tirawi, a Palestinian reporter who has also posted images of Israeli soldiers’ apparent misconduct in Gaza.
An Israeli soldier damages the head of a statue of Jesus, in Debel, Lebanon, in this still image obtained from social media released on 19th April, 2026. Social Media/via Reuters
Reuters verified the location of the image as Debel, one of the few villages in southern Lebanon where residents remained through an Israeli military campaign against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia that began on 2nd March after the group fired rockets at Israel in support of Iran.
The cross was part of a small shrine in the garden of a family living on the edge of the village, said Fadi Falfel, a priest in Debel.
“One of the Israeli soldiers broke the cross and did this horrible thing, this desecration of our holy symbols,” he said.
The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, which includes Jerusalem’s Catholic Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said in a statement that the act “constitutes a grave affront to the Christian faith.”
“It further reveals a disturbing failure in moral and human formation, wherein even the most elementary reverence for the sacred and for the dignity of others has been gravely compromised,” the statement said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the soldier’s actions went against Jewish values of tolerance and that he would be punished.
“I was stunned and saddened to learn that an IDF soldier damaged a Catholic religious icon in southern Lebanon. I condemn the act in the strongest terms,” he wrote on X.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on X that “Swift, severe, & public consequences are needed.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the soldier’s actions were disgraceful and shameful. “We apologize for this incident and to every Christian whose feelings were hurt,” Saar said on X.
The Israeli military said the incident was being investigated.
“The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] views the incident with great severity and emphasises that the soldier’s conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops,” the military said. “The IDF is working to assist the community in restoring the statue to its place.”
Debel is one of dozens of villages in south Lebanon now under effective Israeli occupation. Israel and Lebanon on Thursday agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire intended to halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
“We have every kind of crisis,” Falfel said.
“We thought the ceasefire would bring us some relief but we’re still surrounded, unable to travel to and from the town. There are some houses on the edge of town that we’re barred from accessing.”
Israeli military officials say they are working with aid agencies to meet the humanitarian needs of Debel and other villages.
– MAAYAN LUBELL and MAYA GEBEILY, Beirut, Lebanon/Reuters
The map named more than 50 other villages to which residents should not return. The Israeli military also said “it is not allowed” to approach the area of the Litani River, which meets the Mediterranean some 30 kilometres north of the border and mostly flows to the north of the area the Israeli military said residents should stay out of.
On Sunday, the Israeli military published a similar map, showing for the first time its new deployment line inside Lebanon running five to 10 kilometres deep.
The Israeli military has been carrying out demolitions in villages in the south, saying it is acting against infrastructure belonging to Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah.
An Israeli military official said Hezbollah had built up and embedded “its presence in civilian infrastructure” in the area “over many decades”.
Senior Lebanese politician Ali Hassan Khalil, a Berri aide and Hezbollah ally, said Israeli forces had carried out varying degrees of destruction in 39 occupied villages since the ceasefire. Khalil told Reuters the destruction of civilian homes was a “clear war crime”.
The Israeli military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A member of the Lebanese army looks at rescuers searching for victims at the site of an Israeli strike on a bridge carried out before a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon went into effect, in Qasmiyeh, Southern Lebanon, on 20th April, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters/Aziz Taher
Earlier, during a briefing with reporters, an Israeli military official didn’t answer questions about the scale of Israeli demolition operations in the south, denying the military was “removing villages”.
Lebanon appoints ex-ambassador to lead talks
The Lebanese Government has been sharply at odds with Hezbollah over its decision to join the regional war on March 2, having sought the group’s peaceful disarmament for the past year, and had called for negotiations with Israel.
Hezbollah says the ceasefire is thanks to Iran.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Lebanon’s talks with Israel would be handled by a delegation led by its former ambassador to Washington, Simon Karam.
A senior Lebanese official earlier said Beirut had informed Washington that circumstances were not correct for a face-to-face meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel during the war. Its attacks have killed two civilians in Israel while 15 Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon since 2nd March, Israel says.
Hezbollah has not disclosed its casualty figures. At least 400 of its fighters had been killed by the end of March, according to sources.
Hezbollah on Monday said explosive devices previously planted by its fighters had detonated as Israeli military vehicles were moving through an area of the south on Sunday, destroying four tanks.
Israel’s military denied this. It later said an armoured vehicle was likely damaged by an explosive device in the south on Sunday, but there were no casualties.
– With reporting by JANA CHOUKEIR in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; ALEXANDER CORNWELL in Jerusalem, Israel; and TOM PERRY in Beirut, Lebanon.