By Laila Bassam and Alexander Cornwell BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli forces killed 22 people in south Lebanon on Sunday as a deadline for their withdrawal passed and thousands of people tried to return to their homes in defiance of Israeli military orders,

Israeli army fire killed 15 people in south Lebanon on Sunday including a soldier, health officials said, as residents tried to return home on the day Israel was meant to withdraw under a truce deal.The withdrawal deadline is part of a ceasefire agreement reached two months ago that ended Israel's war with Iran-backed Hezbollah,

Israeli forces killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more in the country’s south, Lebanese officials said. Israel had agreed to withdraw its troops from the area as of Sunday.

Demonstrators attempted to enter several villages to protest Israel’s failure to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon by the 60-day deadline stipulated in a ceasefire agreement that halted the Israel-Hezbollah war in late November.

The Israeli soldiers have killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 80 were wounded in southern Lebanon as hundreds of Lebanese tried to reach southern villages near the border with Israel by force.

Tensions flared in southern Lebanon as residents of Kafr Kila confronted Israeli forces while attempting to return to their town. The confrontation came after the expiration of the 60-day deadline for displaced individuals to reclaim their homes.