The Lebanese judiciary is considering a legal and procedural mechanism that allows the Lebanese army to conduct inspections of private properties without obstacles, after the army entered the first pilot areas in the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiya, which was visited by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Wednesday, who raised the Lebanese flag there.

The Lebanese army entered the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiya on Tuesday, and continued on Wednesday to survey its features to dismantle weapons and ammunition left over from the war, with the aim of securing the area and returning residents to it safely. A security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the return of residents cannot take place before the engineering units fully complete the process of securing the area, in order to protect returning civilians from any risks to their lives, which has delayed their entry.

The source denied what was rumored in local media that army commander General Rodolphe Haykal had visited the town from which Israeli forces withdrew, and said that the prime minister took a specific route to the town, which engineering units had finished securing during their work over two days since Tuesday.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam raises his country's flag in the square of the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiya (AFP)

The army is working intensively on multiple fronts, in implementation of the security mission in the pilot area to implement the framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel under American sponsorship, where military units have deployed in the area from which Israeli forces withdrew. The army is tightening security measures in the area, in terms of checking the identities of passersby and those entering the area, and inspecting cars, vehicles, and public properties, while the issue of inspecting private properties, i.e., owned homes and lands, has not yet been resolved, noting that Zawtar al-Gharbiya has no homes left, as it was almost completely destroyed by Israeli bombing.

Proposals for inspecting private properties

To resolve the issue of judicial permits for inspecting private properties, a judicial source told Asharq Al-Awsat that there are three proposed mechanisms being studied to facilitate inspections and overcome legal and procedural obstacles. The formula that the judiciary intends to adopt is being studied and discussed with the army command. The first mechanism is to grant an open authorization for the army to inspect private properties. The source considered this formula "difficult to apply as it opens the door to discretion." The second formula is to obtain permission from the judiciary every time the army wants to enter a property. The source considered this formula also "complicated," as it "requires continuous coordination on a moment-by-moment basis with the military judiciary." Therefore, the source favors the third formula, which stipulates granting inspection permits "plot by plot," i.e., an entire town or neighborhoods or areas within the town. He said that what has been presented is still within the framework of proposals.

Local residents gather near a military vehicle at the entrance to the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiya, where the army deployed on Tuesday (Reuters)

According to Lebanese law, entering private properties requires a judicial permit, while no similar permit is needed in the case of entering public properties such as commons, for example. According to the framework agreement, the role of the Lebanese army is to deploy in southern Lebanon and dismantle non-state military infrastructure in return for a gradual Israeli withdrawal, in coordination with the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon (MCG4L), which is an American military unit.

The tasks of the Lebanese army, according to the framework agreement concluded on June 26 last year in Washington, are summarized as taking control of the territories and towns in southern Lebanon from which Israeli forces gradually withdraw, removing weapons and non-state military infrastructure from the areas covered by the agreement, opening roads, and facilitating the return of displaced civilian residents to their villages in the pilot areas.

Military movements in the Lebanese interior

Parallel to these Lebanese measures, the Israeli army continues its military movements in Lebanese territory and violations of the ceasefire agreement, as an Israeli force advanced into the town of Shaqra, according to the official National News Agency, explaining that the Israeli force penetrated towards the Doubayeh area on the outskirts of southern Shaqra, reaching the vicinity of the "Doubayeh archaeological castle" and the Wadi al-Salouqi. This means that the Israeli army crossed the yellow line it had drawn in Wadi al-Salouqi towards the Lebanese interior.

A truck transports an Israeli tank in the Upper Galilee area near the border with Lebanon (AFP)

Also, the Israeli army advanced to the outskirts of the town of Burj al-Muluk, along the main road between Tal al-Nahas and Burj al-Muluk, where it broke into a citizen's home and searched it, also searched his mobile phone, interrogated him, confiscated his passport, before withdrawing towards Tal al-Nahas.

An Israeli force infiltrated the town of Sirbin, coinciding with bursts of heavy machine-gun fire in the area. Repeated artillery shelling targeted the Ali al-Taher hill on the outskirts of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, and similar shelling targeted the town of Hula. A drone strike also targeted the Nabatieh al-Fawqa area.

At night, Israeli forces carried out demolition operations in the towns of Baraashit and Haddatha, and other demolitions in Kunin and Beit Yahoun in the Bint Jbeil district, in addition to another demolition in the town of Majdal Zon in the western district, and a third demolition in Kfar Tebnit in the Nabatieh district.