The violence was reported as a deadline passed for the troop withdrawal from Lebanon

At least two people were killed and 31 wounded by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon on Sunday, Lebanese officials said, as Deadline reported from Hezon. leading south back to their homes.

The agreement, which was signed in November, specified that both Hezbollah and Israel withdraw their forces from South Lebanon, and LEBANESE forces and UN BOARDS will be sent to secure the area. If the Conse, the negotiators hope that this agreement will be, it will bring some measure of calm to the region of chaos and approaching the deadliest war in Lebanon in decades.

But as the deadline passed on Sunday, a very different scenario was taking shape.

Israeli forces occupy parts of Southern Lebanon, stoking fear among the Lebanese of the apostate removed from Israel and renewed the enmity between Israel and Hezbollah. And Israeli officials were warning Lebanon not to return to their homes in many cities and villages in Lebanon.

“In the near future, we will continue to inform you about the places you can return,” Avichai Adraee, the Arabic spokesman for the Israeli army, sent to social media on Sunday morning. “Until further notice, all previously published orders remain in effect.”

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said that those injured on Sunday morning were trying to enter their villages on the border when they were attacked by Israel. Residents of some southern towns had called for their neighbors to gather on Sunday morning and head home for religious services, despite Israel’s warnings.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The situation presents a critical test for Lebanon’s new leaders, President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam, as they seek to consolidate the political return of Hezbollah, to the military.

Any long-term Israeli occupation of South Lebanon could breathe new life into Hezbollah, the group that was founded to liberate Lebanon from the Israeli occupation and which proved to be a force to protect Lebanon’s borders, experts said.

It also threatens to derail the current political momentum in Lebanon, where for the first time in decades there is a serious push to consolidate all military power within the state, and take away Hezbollah’s justification for its massive arsenal.

The focus in Lebanon is now aimed at “changing Hezbollah and transitioning to an Era where Hezbollah is seen as having the right to obtain weapons,” said Mohanad Hage Ali, Deputy Public Director at the Beargegie Middle East Center in Beirut. Any long-term Israeli occupation “will put a break in that momentum, which happens naturally,” he added.

Israeli authorities have expressed concern that Hezbollah remains active in southern Lebanon and question the Lebanese Army’s ability to fight the group. Hezbollah officials did not respond to the allegations but said they were “made” in support of the terms of the case.

On Saturday, Lebanese army officials said they were ready to complete their deployment to the south but were delayed “due to the postponement of the withdrawal zone by the enemy of Israel.

The 60-day release marks more than a year since Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israeli positions in cooperation with ally Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in Gaza that led Oct. 7, 2023, they attacked Israel. Israel retaliated by killing the leadership of Hezbollah, stopping towns and villages along the border and in southern Lebanon.

Even before Sunday’s deadline, thousands of war-torn Lebanese from their homes in the southern region were preparing to return home. On Saturday, the main highway leading to the capital, Beirut, in southern Lebanon was jammed with traffic even as calls were received by automatic weapons from the Israeli army on Saturday.

“You are forbidden to return to your home until the notice is over,” said the automated voice. “Anyone who drives South is putting their life at risk.”

Israeli forces appear to be continuing with ongoing efforts that were denied during the 60-day period to bulldoze and block roads between some villages in southern Lebanon, according to local media. Israel currently occupies about 70 percent of the land it captured after the invasion of Lebanon last fall, according to the United Nations Perestealing Force in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese army also warned of the risk of illegal payments in some villages and towns. However, few in Lebanon have refused since he returned home.

“The people of the country will force their way,” said Abedi al karim Hasan, a banana farmer in Maaliye, a village in southern Lebanon, whose own was destroyed during the war. “If I had a house there, I’d go there first thing tomorrow.”

Hezbollah has not said how it plans to respond to Israel’s continued occupation of Lebanese soil. On Friday, Hezbollah officials warned in a statement that if Israeli forces stay in Lebanon that Sunday, it would be “an attack on the sovereignty of Lebanon and the beginning of a new chapter of work.”

Some Hezbollah lawmakers expect revenge. But some officials from Hezbollah – which has been persecuted militarily and politically in recent months – have instead shifted responsibility for Israel’s response to the Lebanese government. The group’s statement on Friday said it was in a position to “reclaim the land and fight for it in the occupation.”

The replacement of that responsibility with the true strategy of Hezbollah, a few months ago had called on the State to provide thousands of Lebanese displaced by the war that was dragging the country. Still, the political send-off from a group whose core mission is to oppose Israeli occupation shows Hezbollah’s current weak position.

After 14 months of fighting, the militia of the Shiite Muslim group has been defeated, and its loyal base of support is exhausted after months of displacement and destruction. Its patron Iran is weak and weakened by Israel, casting doubt on Iran’s ability to provide millions of dollars to rebuild the homes of Hezbollah supporters in Lezbollah in a month with Israel in 2006.

And in neighboring Syria, rebels attacked Iran’s ally, dictator Bashar al-Assard, cutting Hezbollah’s international bridge to arms and money from Iran.

This windfall has freed Hezbollah’s once iron grip on political power in Lebanon, shifting the country’s political sands for the first time in decades. Earlier this month, Lebanon’s lawmakers elected a new President, after years of political gridlock that many analysts blamed on Hezbollah. A few days later, lawmakers said Mr. Salam, a prominent nedvocate Hezbollah had long opposed, as prime minister.

In a country where no major political decision has been made without Hezbollah’s blessing for years, those changes increase how lost the group is.

But Middle East experts have cautioned against underwriting Hezbollah’s current political weight. And if Israel continues to occupy Lebanon, it can revive the base of the supporting group of Shiite Muslims Maslim as it looks like a protector and protector against the forces of Israel.

“I believe that the groups are interested in restarting the war,” said Sami Nader, director of the Institute of Science at Saint Joseph University of Beirut. But as long as Israel stays in Lebanon, renewing the narrative of Hezbollah. “

Sara Chaito contributed reporting.