Day 3 of ceasefire: Israel's violations

Israeli gunfire wounded two people in Bint Jbeil Friday, on the third day of a ceasefire that ended more than 13 months of war in Lebanon.

Israeli forces also opened fire at a funeral in the southern border town of Khiam and shelled the outskirts of Markaba and Tallousah.

Four Israeli tanks and two bulldozers entered Friday neighborhoods of Khiam, where troops were not present prior to the truce, local media outlets said.

Hezbollah's al-Manar TV said troops had failed to enter the western neighborhoods of the town in two months of ground confrontations with Hezbollah.

Israeli forces "are now occupying" the western neighborhoods of Khiam, the TV channel reported.

The Lebanese army accused Israel of breaking the ceasefire several times on Thursday by conducting strikes on Lebanon with "various weapons" and continuing to patrol and surveil Lebanese skies with warplanes and drones. The army said it was "following up on these violations in coordination with the relevant authorities," without elaborating.

Israel on Thursday carried out its first airstrike on Lebanon since the truce took effect, saying it targeted the militant group's activity at a rocket storage facility in southern Lebanon.

Lebanese authorities reported scattered incidents of Israeli mortar attacks, strikes and shots fired that wounded two civilians trying to return to Markaba, a village close to the border that has been a scene of intense fighting over the past 14 months. The Israeli military described them as suspects who violated the terms of the truce.

The bursts of violence — with no reports of serious casualties — reflected the uneasy nature of the ceasefire that otherwise appeared to hold Friday as Lebanese troops began to deploy in parts of southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The Lebanese military said it was setting up temporary checkpoints and detonating unexploded ordnance in hopes of helping displaced civilians return to their homes.

Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon during the country's deadliest war in decades. Thousands of residents, their cars stacked high with mattresses and full of belongings, began to make the odyssey back to their war-ravaged towns on Wednesday.

But their movements remain constrained. The Lebanese and Israeli militaries have ordered civilians displaced from border communities to steer clear of areas where Israeli troops are still in position.

On Thursday, the Israeli military said its troops opened fire at "several suspects" who arrived in their vehicles to certain parts of southern Lebanon in violation of the truce. The statement did not give further details.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency also reported Israeli tank fire hitting some villages and farms in the south, causing no casualties.

Col. Avichay Adraee, an Arabic language spokesman for the Israeli military, announced that a nighttime curfew for Lebanese residents south of the Litani River remained in effect, banning movement from 5 p.m. Thursday until 7 a.m. Friday.

Hezbollah has not issued any public statements on the Israeli ceasefire violations but Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah acknowledged the incidents. When asked by reporters how Hezbollah would respond, he was cautious.

"We don't want to rush things," he said, adding that Hezbollah "has the right to self-defense."

The truce between Israel and Hezbollah, brokered by the United States and France, calls for an initial two-month ceasefire in which the militants are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lebanese troops will gradually deploy further the south as Israeli troops pull out.

The buffer zone would be patrolled by U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops, which have not been a party to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon's military on Thursday shared photos showing troops clearing roads of destroyed vehicles, crushed houses and unexploded bombs.

For many Lebanese, the pause in fighting brought relief — but also heartache. Displaced families returned home to sift through the bombed-out ruins of their shops and apartments.

Drone footage of Qana in southern Lebanon, taken Thursday, shows ghostly, battered neighborhoods with smashed homes and giant craters gouged into the ground — the scale of destruction chilling in a town that has become synonymous with the killing of civilians in past wars.

Israel says it plans to withdraw its forces, but only as it ensures Hezbollah observes the agreement. "Any deviation from this agreement will be enforced with fire," said Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi, the Israeli military's chief of staff. "We are now moving toward new phase, where the same determination that brought us to this agreement will be applied in enforcement."

Of the 50,000 people who fled northern Israeli border communities because of constant Hezbollah attacks, Halevi said that ensuring their swift return was "our duty to them, and our duty to ourselves."

A rare quiet, compared to recent months, fell over the border towns. But with the towns largely deserted and residents relocated, Halevi's remarks signaled the military was not encouraging Israelis to return just yet.

In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings there on Thursday before leaving again.

Despite the smattering of attacks, the clearest sign of the truce Friday was a reduction in the overall level of violence in Lebanon since the conflict began.

More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.