Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has instructed the armed forces to confront any further Israeli incursion in the country’s south after Israeli forces crossed their shared border and killed a municipal worker during an overnight raid.

The pivotal announcement was made on Thursday after days of Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory in near-daily Israeli violations of a ceasefire that went into effect in November.

The Lebanese forces, unlike the armed group Hezbollah, have generally stayed on the sidelines of the conflict with Israel. But Aoun, a former commander of the Lebanese army, appears to have finally lost his patience with the Israeli-forced status quo.

Aoun ordered the army to “confront any Israeli incursion into liberated southern territory, in defence of Lebanese territory and

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