UN Chief Demands Israeli Withdrawal as Diplomacy Pacifies Nabatieh

The UN Secretary-General said he was 'deeply concerned' by Israel's military operations in southern Lebanon and called for an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory, stressing that 'civilians and civilian objects must be protected at all times.' UNIFIL recorded 528 Israeli projectiles between Thursday and Monday and 62 Israeli airspace violations on Sunday alone — among the highest daily totals since the June ceasefire — versus one Hezbollah projectile detected Sunday, the first since June 21. An estimated 20,000 people (around 5,000 families) fled Nabatieh district over the preceding week. Contacts by President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and PM Nawaf Salam, along with Arab and international mediation, helped pacify the situation after the three-day escalation killed 27 and wounded 69. The Lebanese Armed Forces began reinforcing positions in Nabatieh city — stationing troops, adding patrols and expanding its presence in the pilot-zone town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh to roughly 180 personnel — though Lebanese officials said the deployment's objective was to 'reinforce LAF's deployment, not to begin a disarmament process,' a distinction that falls short of the June Trilateral Framework's demand that LAF authority be linked to full Hezbollah disarmament.