The Media Line: Ceasefire or Controlled Pause? Israel–Hezbollah Clash Shifts to Enforcement and Definitions 

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Ceasefire or Controlled Pause? Israel–Hezbollah Clash Shifts to Enforcement and Definitions 

Competing accounts of violations, civilian harm, and disarmament obligations shape how each side portrays the first year of the Lebanon truce 

By Taylor Thomas/The Media Line 

Just days after the truce took effect, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, posted on X: “Again, a ceasefire according to Israel is ‘you cease, I fire.’” That day, Israel killed five Palestinians despite the truce. In the first month after the pause in fighting, reported deaths exceeded 200. In Lebanon, the pattern is familiar: on the eve of the ceasefire’s first anniversary, November 27, the death toll there had surpassed 340. Israeli officials counter that enforcement actions are part of the deal: “Israel will continue to defend all of its borders, and we continue also to insist on the full enforcement of the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel,” government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters on Nov. 6, 2025. 

“It’s not really a ceasefire, it’s a unilateral ceasefire, so it’s not a ceasefire in the true sense,” Lebanese analyst Abdallah Khoury told The Media Line. When the agreement was formalized, the US allowed Israel to strike any “perceived threat from Hezbollah.” Under that rubric, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have conducted near-daily operations in Lebanon. “Essentially, it was a ceasefire imposed on the weaker side, because at that point Hezbollah was willing to accept anything to stop the Israeli bombing,” Khoury added. Reported Israeli strikes last fall killed 4,000 people and displaced at least 1 million. 

Most attacks have hit southern and eastern Lebanon, areas with large Shia communities and political support for Hezbollah. While the Lebanese army has reinforced certain border villages, Israeli troops continue to occupy five strategic positions along the frontier. Alongside stepped-up diplomacy—marked by frequent visits by US officials—Israel has widened its target set. Several construction projects valued in the tens of millions of dollars have been destroyed, delaying reconstruction in already damaged districts. Tens of thousands remain displaced since October 8, 2023, when cross-border fire began. The IDF says it uses precision munitions, aerial surveillance, and advance warnings to mitigate harm, and argues that Hezbollah’s siting of weapons in populated areas violates the accord. 

Tensions rose last week after Israeli soldiers raided the border town of Blida before dawn, killing a municipal employee. On Thursday, the Israeli military carried out a major strike in southern Lebanon. The IDF said the raids targeted Hezbollah “military reconstruction activities” near the border and issued evacuation orders via its Arabic-language spokesperson, who warned of strikes on infrastructure used to rebuild the group’s operations. “In the near future, the IDF will target Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure throughout the south to counter its prohibited attempts to rebuild its activities in the area,” said military spokesman Avichay Adraee in a statement. Israeli statements the same day said the targets included weapons depots and infrastructure linked to Hezbollah’s Radwan unit, which Israel accuses of rebuilding in breach of the 2024 agreement. 

Lebanese military sources say Hezbollah has largely observed the ceasefire, withdrawing much of its arsenal from the south and violating the truce only once. The Israeli military disputes that assessment, saying Hezbollah “continues attempts to restore terror infrastructure in southern Lebanon and is focusing on rebuilding the Radwan Force’s capabilities.” Citing those activities, the IDF said the presence of Hezbollah infrastructure and weapon stores “constituted a violation of the November 2024 ceasefire deal,” which it says permits responses to immediate threats. 

Israel has reportedly committed more than 4,500 violations to date, according to several Lebanese media outlets. The United Nations reports that at least 103 civilians were killed in Israeli attacks over the past year. “Israel is basically doing whatever it wants in Lebanon,” said a resident of Tyre, the main coastal city in the south. “No one controls them,” he told The Media Line. Israel rejects that characterization, saying Hezbollah remains armed in defiance of the accord; on Nov. 2, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Israel would act if Lebanon “fails to disarm Hezbollah under the ceasefire,” while Defense Minister Israel Katz said Beirut “must fulfill its commitment” and pledged intensified efforts to protect northern Israel. 

“There’s one side that won the war last year and is trying to impose every possible condition, and it has the support of the Americans,” Khoury said. “What can we do?” he added. “Frankly, very little; the Lebanese are very aware of their weakness, and that is why they try, by all means, to preserve some of their sovereignty, but without much success,” he said. The truce called for Hezbollah’s disarmament—the only Lebanese armed group to retain weapons after the 1975–1990 civil war. Israeli officials argue that this clause is the core of the deal; “We will not allow Hezbollah to rearm or to recover the military strength that was shattered by Israel’s ground and air war in 2023–24,” Bedrosian told reporters on Nov. 6. 

Over the year, Lebanese forces have removed much of Hezbollah’s arsenal from the border region, in coordination with the Shia Islamist party and armed group. As the process moved north, Hezbollah refused to surrender its remaining weapons. Israel says it will maintain strikes until there is concrete progress on limiting Hezbollah’s armaments and has advanced its case in the media. Haaretz reported last week, “Army intelligence has warned that the organization is working intensively to restore its military capabilities, and security officials believe that Hezbollah intends to maintain its status as the most powerful military force in Lebanon.” Independent tracking by security analysts also recorded numerous Israeli operations between Oct. 27 and Nov. 2 targeting Hezbollah operatives and assets both south and north of the Litani River, which Israel framed as enforcement of ceasefire limits. 

“The Hezbollah terror organization continues attempts to restore terror infrastructure in southern Lebanon and is focusing on rebuilding the [Radwan Force’s] capabilities with the aim of harming the State of Israel,” the IDF said. The military added that it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strikes, including by issuing evacuation warnings and using precision munitions, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence. The IDF said the existence of the Hezbollah infrastructure and weapon depots constituted a violation of the November 2024 deal. In several incidents this past week, Israeli warnings were issued publicly ahead of strikes—an unusual step over the last year—telling residents of specific villages in south Lebanon to evacuate immediately. 

“Let’s ask direct questions. Does Hezbollah today, even if it smuggles short-range missiles through channels in Syria, pose a fundamental threat to Israel? Does this suggest that Hezbollah can impose a deterrent on Israel, as it attempted to do in the past? No, it doesn’t, because the quantity of weapons they smuggle is relatively limited,” Khoury said. “The Israelis are trying to justify this more aggressive stance, and, along with the Americans, they are pressuring the Lebanese government to make political concessions,” he added. Israeli officials respond that the issue is cumulative capability, not single consignments: The IDF has repeatedly warned of “military reconstruction activities” and says it will strike to prevent Hezbollah from restoring launch capacity near the border. 

Beirut is under sustained pressure from both allies. Despite initial resistance, the government and Hezbollah agreed to advance a US-backed plan that brings Lebanese civilians into ongoing talks with Israel. Government officials did not respond to The Media Line’s requests for comment. As the truce’s first anniversary approaches, the Israeli military has characterized recent strikes as time-bound “enforcement” actions rather than a return to open war, and said this week it had completed a set of operations against Hezbollah targets tied to rearmament. 

Although Lebanon enjoys greater sovereignty than Gaza, decision-making remains constrained by external actors. “The Lebanese, under immense pressure, are yielding to American and Israeli conditions. They are attempting to do so in a limited way, but they are yielding,” Khoury said. “The Americans are no longer enthusiastic about the idea of war, so, seeing that the Lebanese are giving in, they are willing to continue down this path,” he said. “Sooner or later, we are faced with two paths: Either the Lebanese accept some kind of compromise that satisfies both the Israelis and the Americans, or we will return to war, that is, a state of armed conflict where the Israelis will force us to accept their terms because we are in no position to resist,” he concluded. Israel maintains that avoiding that outcome requires full Lebanese implementation of the disarmament clauses and an end to what it describes as Hezbollah’s “rearmament under cover of the truce.”