GENEVA: The United Nations said Wednesday it had verified the deaths of 103 civilians in Lebanon since the November 2024 ceasefire with Israel, demanding a halt to the ongoing suffering.
The UN Human Rights Office called for renewed efforts for a durable truce, more than 10 months on from the agreed ceasefire.
“We are still seeing devastating impacts of jet and drone strikes in residential areas, as well as near UN peacekeepers in the south,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
Israel has kept up near daily strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah operatives or sites, despite the truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities including two months of open war with the Iran-backed group.
“Families are simply unable to make a start on rebuilding their homes and their lives, and instead are faced by the real and present danger of more strikes,” Turk said.
“Hundreds of damaged schools, health facilities, places of worship, among other civilian sites, are still no-go zones, or at best, only partly useable.”
The Human Rights Office said that until the end of September, it had verified 103 civilians killed in Lebanon since the ceasefire.
There have been no reports of killings from projectiles fired from Lebanon toward Israel since the truce, it said.
Turk’s office said five people, including three children, were killed when an Israeli drone struck a vehicle and a motorcycle in the border area of Bint Jbeil on September 21.
Turk demanded an independent and impartial investigation into the incident, along with others he said raised concerns about compliance with international humanitarian law.
Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed and five others wounded in an Israeli strike on Wednesday on the country’s south, without specifying whether the casualties were civilians.
More than 80,000 people remain displaced in Lebanon as a result of ongoing violence, with around 30,000 people from northern Israel reportedly still displaced.
“At all times during the conduct of hostilities, civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected and international humanitarian law fully respected, irrespective of claims of breaches of a ceasefire,” said Turk.
“Good faith implementation of the ceasefire is the only path toward a durable peace, and its terms need to be respected.”