Israel Warns Residents of Towns on Both Sides of Lebanon Border to Stay Away

The Israeli military issued new warnings to the residents of towns on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border on Friday, telling them not to return to their homes, as the fragile U.S.-brokered cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to hold despite an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon the day before.

The military released a list of more than 60 towns in southern Lebanon that it said remained off-limits to civilians, including large centers like Bint Jbeil, Marjeyoun and Naqoura, the home of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the country.

The Israeli military “does not intend to target you and therefore you are prohibited at this stage from returning to your homes,” said Avichay Adraee, a military spokesman, in a statement posted online to village residents.

It is far from clear when hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese will be able to return to their homes in the south. According to the cease-fire agreement, Israeli forces will gradually withdraw from southern Lebanon over the next 60 days.

Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported on Friday that the Israeli military was enforcing restrictions on returning with gunfire and shelling. The agency said two journalists were injured earlier this week by Israeli fire in the hard-hit southern town of Khiam.

The Israeli military also released a more general warning to residents of border towns in Israel, which had been the target of Hezbollah fire for months, telling them the border region remained under a “general closure.” It warned that it could have to intercept rocket fire or other munitions, and so the risk of shrapnel falling into evacuated towns could not be ruled out.

One of the Lebanese towns named by the military on Friday was Ain Ebel, a Christian village near the border. Rakan Ashkar Diab, a father of two, fled the town for Beirut back in October but decided to return on Friday despite the warnings.

He passed destroyed houses along the way, but arrived to find his own home still standing, he said. He said he would not bring his family back yet because of the Israeli warnings, but he hoped to have them home in time for Christmas.

“We are waiting to see how the situation unfolds,” said Mr. Diab. “It’s still a bit fragile, the cease-fire.”

Israel stepped up its attacks on Lebanon in September after almost a year of near-daily Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel, which Hezbollah said was an act of solidarity with Hamas, its ally in Gaza.

But the subsequent war has been devastating for both Lebanon and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group that is the country’s dominant political player and military force.

It has been the deadliest conflict in Lebanon since the country’s 15-year civil war ended in 1990, and has forced roughly a quarter of the population from their homes. The fighting has killed about 3,800 Lebanese and 100 Israelis, according to their governments.

Under the cease-fire agreement that went into effect at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, both sides will observe a 60-day truce while Israel gradually withdraws and Hezbollah moves its fighters north of the Litani River, which runs somewhat parallel with the border with Israel.

That will create a sort of buffer zone to be policed by a U.N. peacekeeping force and Lebanon’s military, neither of which have been combatants in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

But the agreement does not say when civilians will be permitted to return to their homes. On Wednesday, tens of thousands in Lebanon began to go back to ruined communities in the Dahiya area outside Beirut and in the country’s south and east.

Israel has said its actions will depend on events in Lebanon, and on Thursday it struck a rocket storage facility in the country’s south after it said it observed suspected militant activity there.

Ori Gordin, the commanding officer of the Israeli military’s northern command, told Israeli troops in southern Lebanon that it was now their job to “enable and enforce” the cease-fire.

“We will enforce it aggressively,” said Mr. Gordin, in a video of the remarks released on Friday by the military. “We do not intend to let Hezbollah return to these areas.”

Euan Ward contributed reporting from Beirut.