Israel says Hezbollah trying to rebuild, smuggle in arms from Syria

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The Israeli military accused Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on Tuesday of seeking to rebuild its combat abilities in south Lebanon to the point of threatening Israel’s security and undoing last year’s ceasefire deal.

Military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said Iranian-backed Hezbollah was operating south of the Litani River in violation of the truce accord and that Israeli forces were conducting strikes on Hezbollah targets in that area. Hezbollah says it is committed to the ceasefire deal.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam say Israel is violating the truce deal, pointing to the occupation of five hilltop positions in southern Lebanon by Israeli troops as well as Israeli air strikes and deadly ground incursions into Lebanese territory.

TENSION OVER DISARMAMENT PUSH

Shoshani told a news briefing that Hezbollah was also trying to smuggle in weapons from Syria and via other routes to Lebanon. “We are working to prevent that from happening and to block the ground routes from Syria into Lebanon to a high level of success, but they still pose a threat to us,” Shoshani said.

“We are committed to the agreement but it must be held. We will not return to the reality of October 7 (2023) with a threat of thousands of terrorists on our border within walking distance of our civilians.”

Hezbollah denies it is rebuilding its military capabilities in south Lebanon. It has not fired at Israel since the ceasefire came into force, and Lebanese security officials told Reuters that Hezbollah has not obstructed Lebanese army operations to find and confiscate the group’s weapons in the country’s south.

In a televised speech on Tuesday, Hezbollah head Naim Qassem said Hezbollah remained committed to the 2024 ceasefire and that there was “no alternative” to that deal.

He said if Israel withdrew, stopped its attacks on Lebanon and released Lebanese nationals detained in Israel, then northern Israeli towns would have “no problem” with security.

But he reiterated Hezbollah’s rejection of full disarmament and said Israel’s destructive and deadly strikes “cannot continue”, adding: “There is a limit to everything.”

Israel has been pressing Lebanon’s army to be more aggressive in disarming Hezbollah by searching private homes in the south for weaponry, according to Lebanese and Israeli officials.

The army is confident it can declare Lebanon’s south free of Hezbollah arms by the end of 2025, but has refused to search private dwellings for fear of reigniting civil strife and derailing a disarmament strategy seen by the army as cautious but effective, Lebanese security officials told Reuters.

Hezbollah was severely weakened in a year-long war that saw an Israeli incursion into south Lebanon backed by heavy air strikes, but still wields considerable power among Shi’ites in Lebanon’s fragile sectarian-based system of governance.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer in Jerusalem and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; editing by Mark Heinrich, Aidan Lewis)