Concerns and anger mount as Israeli forces remain in Lebanon
Clip: 2/9/2025 | 7m 29sVideo has Closed Captions
Lebanese villagers blocked from returning home as Israeli forces remain in area
Israel pulled its forces from a key Gaza corridor Sunday as part of a fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas. Meanwhile, on Israel’s northern front inside Lebanon, concerns are mounting that its forces there may stay past a second deadline to withdraw by Feb. 18. Special correspondent Simona Foltyn reports from the Lebanese border.
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Concerns and anger mount as Israeli forces remain in Lebanon
Clip: 2/9/2025 | 7m 29sVideo has Closed Captions
Israel pulled its forces from a key Gaza corridor Sunday as part of a fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas. Meanwhile, on Israel’s northern front inside Lebanon, concerns are mounting that its forces there may stay past a second deadline to withdraw by Feb. 18. Special correspondent Simona Foltyn reports from the Lebanese border.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipgood evening I'm Ali Rogan John Yang is away Israel pulled its forces from a key Gaza Corridor today which it used as a military zone during the war cutting off the north of the Gaza Strip from the south the withdrawal is part of a fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas Drone footage revealed the scale of Destruction at the narim corridor people can be see sifting through debris carrying bodies and making their way home meanwhile on Israel's Northern front inside Lebanon its forces there have already missed a deadline to withdraw and concerns are mounting they may stay past February 18th a second deadline to pull out Simona finee is on the ground at the Lebanese border this is yarun one of several Lebanese border Villages still under Israeli control near the roadblock erected by the IDF I met Muhammad Shaheen The Village Chief he's a dual Lebanese American citizen who lived in California for almost two decades we are at the main just of Yun this is the uh east side of Yun uh the Israelis are in this side we have few standing house I guess they want to destroy them before they leave every day he and other villagers watch as the IDF demolishes more homes some owned by American citizens like Shaheen they usually uh uh put the explosives we can see them everybody can see them they're visible uh putting explosives next to the houses and by Sunset they uh they bomb them yeah they do three four houses five houses sometimes at a time now if you stay later you'll see them you'll see them yourself we don't have to wait long from afar we film a group of Israeli soldiers entering a home soon after it's set on fire it all happens in plain sight of the Lebanese Army and UN peacekeeper ERS the Israeli Army is stationed in those houses over there just a few hundred meters away and when we pointed our zoom lens at them a little while ago they fired warning shots in our Direction so it's pretty clear that they don't want to be filmed a third of yun's inhabitants are Christian the historic church now lies in Ruins as thus Shaheen's 100-year-old family home he took this video a few days back when he briefly returned with the Lebanese Army the idef says it's still clearing Villages of hezbollah's weapons and dismantling the group's tunnel infrastructure which it says are embedded in civilian homes people here see it differently there's nobody in youron there's nobody there they just want to destroy everything they don't want people to come back and live how many houses have been destroyed in yarun since the ceasefire came into effect since the seed fire I'll say about between 200 250 houses yeah we looked at satellite images to verify Shaheen's allegations of Israeli demolitions in yarun during the ceasefire period between December 1st and February 2nd at least 143 houses were destroyed there are also reports that the IDF has been uprooting lebanon's precious trees yarun was famous for its ancient Oak Forest the size of it is uh 600,000 square meter yeah they took them all off they took them in Israel they brought heavy machineries to them all out uh load them on trucks the forest is seen here to the west of the village satellite images show that since January 71% of the trees or 120 Acres have been removed and yarun is no exception driving along the border many villages are destroyed or remain inaccessible so we're on our way now to another Village called BEDA we just spoke to some civilians who told us that BEDA is still occupied by the Israeli Army and they're not allowing civilians to return to their homes we arrive at a Lebanese Army checkpoint I ask the soldiers if it's safe to go on down the road we come onto another roadblock and a warning the Israeli Army has killed more than 20 Lebanese in the past 2 weeks as they attempted to return home despite the risk some remain undeterred I went to my brother's house to reassure him that it's still standing what we can do hopefully soon will be able to return amid the delays the anger mounts This Is Our Land we want to go back Zab Naim blames the International Community for not pressuring the Israeli Army to withdraw in line with the agreed timetable all the countries have agreed with them at the expense of the people they are occupying and they are talking the seasar was 60 days then it became another 18 and then what we want our houses back our houses and our land are our dignity Israel says that Lebanon hasn't lived up to its side of the deal as the IDF gradually pulls back it's leaving behind a trail of Destruction similar to what we've seen in Gaza this is ter Hara the main street is unrecognizable kasim Hussein Hayer is the town's mayor as you can see 90 to 95% of the houses in the village have been destroyed and are uninhabitable the IDF left terara on January 27th but the death hole keeps Rising in the village Cemetery a funeral is underway for abas Haider and his two young daughters they and another child were killed in an explosion the day before it occurred here inside the family home it happened within 5 minutes of him arriving home he parked his car and entered then there was an explosion abas had only just begun to rebuild his house the mayor accuses the idea of booby trapping it the way the Israeli enemy is infiltrating other areas to kill and bomb they can easily infiltrate from the southern areas the IDF is due to withdraw completely on February 18th no matter the destruction the Lebanese displaced from their land have vowed to return the moment they leave people of Yun will come back even if they live in tents for PBS news weekend I'm Simona ftin at lebanon's border with Israel we reached out to the IDF for their response to this report and they said in part they act in strict accordance with international law and make all feasible efforts to mitigate harm to civilians during operational activity they added quote it must be emphasized that Hezbollah unlawfully embeds its military assets into densely populated civilian areas and cynically exploit civilian infrastructure for Terror purposes
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipMajor corporate funding for the PBS News Hour is provided by BDO, BNSF, Consumer Cellular, American Cruise Lines, and Raymond James. Funding for the PBS NewsHour Weekend is provided by...