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Mayor of northern settlement: Israel ‘surrendered’ to Hezbollah

November 28, 2024 at 2:18 pm

David Azulay, the head of the town council in Metula, gesturers during a media tour organised by the Alma Research and Education Centre, in the deserted northern Israeli town near the border with Lebanon, on March 19, 2024. [ JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images]

The Mayor of the Israeli illegal settlement of Metula in northern Israel, David Azoulay, yesterday slammed the ceasefire agreement signed with Hezbollah, claiming the Israeli government has concluded a “shameful surrender” deal.

Azoulay said in a televised interview that he, along with other mayors of border settlements, have refused to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming Netanyahu “wanted to exploit the event” for his own personal glory and to show off.

“Concluding an agreement with a terrorist organisation is a big mistake, and thousands of residents of the Lebanese town of Kfar Kila will return to the town, and we have not learned anything from the October 7 lesson,” Azoulay said.

He indicated that he will not call on the residents of his settlement to return because the Lebanese resistance fighters remain on the border line and the security situation has not changed despite the war that lasted over a year.

The ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel came into effect in the early hours of yesterday morning. However, the Israeli army has warned Lebanese residents of southern villages not to return to the evacuated villages.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said the army will notify the residents of southern Lebanon of the date of their return.

For his part, a spokesman for the Israeli occupation army, Daniel Hagari, said despite the agreement, the army will remain deployed in its positions inside southern Lebanon.

Read: Israel orders displaced Lebanese not return to border villages