UN peacekeepers in Lebanon patrol through rocky hills and olive groves near the border with Israel, ahead of a deadline for a truce in the war with Hezbollah that some residents fear will not hold.

The situation is "still very fragile", said Indian peacekeeper Gurpyar Sharma from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) amid the wreckage of several destroyed buildings near the town of Marjayoun.

"We are carrying out these kind of patrols" to help prevent any "further escalation of the violence", he said as AFP accompanied peacekeepers on a tour of the area.

Clothes and photographs were strewn among shattered cement blocks and other debris from the destroyed buildings, in a scene of devastation repeated across south Lebanon.

A delicate truce took effect on November 27 between Israel and Hezbollah after more than a year of hostilities initiated by the Iran-backed militant group over the Gaza conflict, including two months of all-out war when Israel also sent in ground troops.

Under the........

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