Israel says Lebanon is not doing enough to disarm Hezbollah

By Tamar Uriel-Berri and Maya Gebeily

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Israel said Lebanon’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah are far from sufficient after the Lebanese army declared that it had established operational control in the south, raising pressure on Lebanese leaders who fear Israel could escalate strikes.

In line with U.S. demands, the Lebanese government has been seeking to restrict the possession of arms to state control since the Iran-backed Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah emerged badly weakened from a war with Israel in 2024.

The Lebanese army said on Thursday that the goals of the first phase of its plan had been achieved in an “effective and tangible way”, and that it had secured areas under its authority south of the Litani river – excluding positions still occupied by Israeli forces.

ISRAEL SAYS HEZBOLLAH TRYING TO REARM

Following the army’s statement, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hezbollah must be fully disarmed, citing a U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Lebanon in November, 2024.

While efforts toward this end by Lebanon’s government and army were “an encouraging beginning … they are far from sufficient, as evidenced by Hezbollah’s efforts to rearm and rebuild its terror infrastructure with Iranian support”.

Hezbollah’s disarmament was “imperative for Israel’s security and Lebanon’s future”, it said.

Israel has been conducting near daily strikes in the south and sometimes more widely in Lebanon, accusing Hezbollah of trying to reestablish infrastructure and Beirut of failing to uphold the 2024 ceasefire agreement.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah, which says it has respected the ceasefire in the south and that the agreement does not apply to the rest of Lebanon.

The Lebanese army had set a year-end deadline to clear non-state weaponry from the south, before moving on to other areas of the country. In its statement, the army said there was more work to be done to clear unexploded ordnance and tunnels.

LEBANON AIMS TO CONTROL ‘DECISIONS OF WAR AND PEACE’

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that the army deployment in the south aimed to affirm the principle that “decisions of war and peace” belonged to the state alone, and “to prevent the use of Lebanese territory as a starting point for any hostile acts”.

But he added that lasting stability remained contingent upon addressing key issues, chief among them “the continued Israeli occupation of parts of Lebanese territory and the establishment of buffer zones within it”.

Hezbollah has fought numerous conflicts with Israel since it was founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982. It kept its arms after the end of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, using them against Israeli troops who occupied the south until 2000.

The Lebanese military, which receives U.S. support, has stayed out of conflicts between Hezbollah and Israel.

SEEKING INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT

Aoun and the Lebanese army said that international support must be expedited so that the army could continue making progress in establishing a state monopoly on arms.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said it was “great to see” the army had “assumed operational control south of the Litani”. “This is undeniable progress. Hard work lies ahead,” she wrote on X.

A Lebanese security source told Reuters that the army’s statement signalled that no group would be able to launch attacks from southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah opened fire in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in 2023, and traded fire across the border until Israel went on the offensive in 2024, killing the group’s leaders and destroying much of its arsenal.

In a statement, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, affirmed support for the army and “its achievements which would have been nearly complete were it not for Israel’s occupation of numerous locations and its daily violations”.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily in Beirut and Tamar Uriel-Beeri in Jerusalem; Additional reporting by Jana Choukeir in Dubai and Tala Ramadan in Beirut; Writing by Ahmed Elimam and Tom Perry; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Thomas Derpinghaus and Alison Williams)