A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah – which took effect at midnight on Thursday after weeks of escalating cross-border fighting – risks collapsing, French President Emmanuel Macron warned, after reports of violations in southern Lebanon.
The ceasefire agreed between Israel and militant group Hezbollah took effect at midnight local time, after almost seven weeks of war.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he agreed “to advance” peace efforts with Lebanon, but said Israeli troops would not withdraw.
The ceasefire appeared to be holding across most of Lebanon early Friday, but within hours, the Lebanese army accused Israel of “a number of violations" in the south of the country.
Macron on Friday said he fully supported the ceasefire, brokered by the United States and announced by President Donald Trump, but was concerned that it "may already be undermined by ongoing military operations".
"I call for the safety of civilians on both sides of the border between Lebanon and Israel," he said on X, formerly Twitter. "Hezbollah must lay down its arms. Israel must respect Lebanese sovereignty and end the war."
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Deadly airstrikes
Israel has been fighting Hezbollah since the militant group launched rocket attacks in support of Iran last month, following the killing by Israel of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Hezbollah has not officially said if it will recognise the ceasefire, but one of its lawmakers told France's AFP news agency on Thursday that the group would respect it if Israel stopped its attacks on its militants.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon since early March – including health workers and journalists, according to Lebanese authorities. Over 1.2 million people have been displaced, or one in five of the population, most of them from Shia Muslim communities.
Israel halted strikes in capital city Beirut on 8 April after a deadly bombardment that hit several crowded commercial and residential areas and killed more than 350 people in one day.
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France-Lebanon bond
"We must do everything possible to ensure the ceasefire is respected," Defence Minister Catherine Vautrin told French television channel TF1, calling the situation in Lebanon "absolutely dire".
Responding to comments by the Israeli ambassador to the United States, who claimed that Paris had no business interfering in negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, the minister stated that "no one can call into question the relations between France and Lebanon".
She said: "We have a permanent presence alongside the Lebanese [...]. France and Lebanon share a common history and a bond that nothing can break."
(with newswires)
