Israeli flag and checkpoint mark access limits in south Lebanon security zone

An Israeli flag and a checkpoint marked the start of an Israeli-announced security zone on the road to the south Lebanese coastal town of Naqura, where an Israeli soldier ordered a convoy of journalists to turn around.

The journalists were travelling with L'Oeuvre d'Orient, a Christian aid organisation, on an organised tour of still-inhabited villages in the occupied area. The group had obtained required permits from UN peacekeepers, known as UNIFIL. An Israeli soldier told the convoy over a loudspeaker that it did not have permission to pass.

Journalists saw Israeli flags and soldiers on the road to Naqura, more than five kilometres from the last Lebanese army position. Lebanese flags and yellow Hezbollah banners were also visible by the road, torn and faded after months of war between Hezbollah and Israel. The area between Lebanese and Israeli military positions resembled a no man's land, with only occasional UNIFIL patrols.

Near a newly erected yellow iron gate and earth mounds blocking the road, at least three Israeli soldiers were seen on the balcony of a two-storey house. One ordered the convoy to turn back, another watched through binoculars, and a third appeared to be wearing a Jewish prayer shawl. Photos showed netting around the balcony, likely as a precaution against drones, which Hezbollah has increasingly used in attacks on Israeli forces.

L'Oeuvre d'Orient had planned to go to the southern Christian villages of Debl, Rmeish and Ain Ebel to inaugurate a sports area jointly funded by the French UNIFIL battalion. The project was intended to provide an outlet for young people still living in an area where entry and exit require prior permission.

After the convoy turned back and waited for several hours near an Italian battalion base, the organisation said Israel had refused to let journalists join. A force from the French battalion went alone to inaugurate the centre. Hugues de Woillemont, head of the organisation in France, said he regretted not being able to go because he had wanted to tell the villages they had not been forgotten. Vincent Gelot, the organisation's director in Lebanon, said the presence of the villages was a presence for all of Lebanon, not only for Christians.

On June 18, a day after Tehran and Washington signed a memorandum of understanding that included a ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel's military published a map of what it called a security zone. The area stretches about 10 kilometres inside Lebanese territory and includes dozens of towns and villages, including Naqura, where UNIFIL has its headquarters.

In late June, Lebanon and Israel reached a framework agreement in Washington under which the Israeli military is to withdraw from southern Lebanon and the Lebanese army is to deploy, starting with two pilot zones. Washington announced on Monday that implementation had begun. Despite the deal, Israeli officials have repeatedly said their forces will not leave Lebanon before Hezbollah is disarmed, a condition experts cited by the source doubt Beirut can meet.

Colonel Maxime Laudet of the French battalion said after returning from Ain Ebel that the remaining residents just want to live.