The Israeli military and the Iran-aligned Hezbollah militia both faced accusations on Thursday of violating the ceasefire, just one day after the fragile truce came into force.
Netanyahu told the Channel 14 broadcaster on Thursday that he has instructed the military to prepare for an “intensive war” if the ceasefire agreement is breached, without specifying what could entail a violation.
Since the ceasefire began on Wednesday morning, large-scale operations between Israel and Hezbollah have ceased.
However, the Israeli military has reported several incidents since then and says it is taking action against Hezbollah fighters over breaches of the deal.
The Lebanese army, meanwhile, is also accusing the Israeli military of violating the agreement.
Israel “violated the agreement several times through air violations and targeting Lebanese territory with various weapons,” it said in a statement on the social media platform X.
The Lebanese army, which plays a key role in overseeing the agreement, is not an active party in the Hezbollah-Israel conflict.
In one incident, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an aircraft attacked a weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah after “terrorist activity was identified in a facility used by Hezbollah to store mid-range rockets.”
According to Israeli media reports, it was the second Israeli airstrike in Lebanon since the ceasefire began.
An Israeli military official commented on the incidents, describing them as “isolated events” typical in the early hours or days following the implementation of such an agreement.
The painstakingly negotiated deal stipulates that Hezbollah must withdraw behind the Litani River, about 30 kilometres north of the border to Israel, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
The resolution marked the end of the last war in Lebanon in 2006 but was never fully implemented.
Israel’s ground troops are to gradually withdraw from Lebanon over the next 60 days, but the IDF says it is still taking action against Hezbollah members who are violating the agreement.
Earlier, the Lebanese state news agency NNA reported that at least two people were injured when the Israeli military fired on villages near the border in south-eastern Lebanon.
In a statement, the IDF said that several suspected Hezbollah fighters had arrived in vehicles in various parts of southern Lebanon, violating the terms of the deal.
The IDF also announced another night-time curfew in southern Lebanon, with a spokesman saying access to border areas south of the Litani River has been banned between 5 pm (1500 GMT) on Thursday and 7 am on Friday.
“For your safety, you must follow these instructions,” the spokesman said in a post on X. The military announced a similar curfew on Wednesday evening.
Iran calls ceasefire a ‘humiliating defeat’ for Israel
The 60-day ceasefire is designed to put an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that began more than one year ago in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attacks.
The deal has been welcomed around the world, particularly in Lebanon where hundreds of thousands were displaced and thousands killed in the fighting following Israel’s ground invasion in late September.
As well as suffering setbacks in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah lost a number of top commanders in targeted Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, including its leader Hassan Nasrallah.
In a letter on Thursday to Nasrallah’s successor Naim Qassem, however, the leader of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the ceasefire was a “victory for Hezbollah” and a “strategic and humiliating defeat” for Israel.
