Israel urges Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah under ceasefire terms

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Nov 2 that Hezbollah was seeking to rearm and that Israel would exercise its right to self-defence under the ceasefire accord of 2024 if Lebanon failed to disarm the militant group.

At the start of a Cabinet meeting, Mr Netanyahu said Israel would “act as necessary” if Lebanon does not take steps to prevent its territory from becoming a renewed front.

The US brokered a truce in November 2024
between Lebanon and Israel after more than a year of conflict sparked by the war in Gaza, but Israeli strikes across the border have continued sporadically.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Nov 2 that it had killed four Hezbollah members.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz also said the Lebanese government must fulfil its commitment to disarm Hezbollah and remove it from southern Lebanon.

Mr Katz also said maximum enforcement efforts would continue and intensify to protect Israeli residents in the north.

Under the ceasefire accord, Lebanon agreed that only state security forces should bear arms, which means Hezbollah must be fully disarmed.

Lebanese army sources told Reuters they had blown up so many Hezbollah arms caches that they had run out of explosives and they expect to complete their sweep of the country’s south by the end of 2025.

Once the dominant political party in Lebanon, Hezbollah was severely weakened by Israel’s war in 2024, which killed thousands of fighters and long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah
.

The war also killed more than 1,100 women and children and destroyed swathes of Lebanon’s south and east.

Hezbollah has publicly committed to the ceasefire and has not opposed the seizures of unmanned weapons caches in the south and has not fired on Israel since the November truce.

However, it insists the disarmament, as mentioned in the text, only applies to the south of Lebanon and has hinted conflict was possible if the state moved against the group. REUTERS