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Israel’s military conducted several air strikes against what it said were Hizbollah targets in southern and eastern Lebanon, stepping up recent attacks after claiming the international body overseeing a ceasefire with the militant group failed to address its concerns.
Israel said a rocket launcher, a military site and smuggling routes on the Syrian-Lebanese border “used to transfer weapons to Hizbollah” were among the sites targeted.
It follows another Israeli air strike this weekend that killed five people in southern Lebanon. It brought the total number of dead in Lebanon following the November ceasefire to 37, according to a Financial Times tally, underlining how Israel has repeatedly used deadly force to police the terms of the deal as it sees them.
The air strikes come less than two weeks before the deadline under which the Israeli military and Hizbollah are due to withdraw from southern Lebanon as part of the ceasefire, and be replaced by Lebanon’s Armed Forces.
On Monday, Israel’s surveillance planes were seen over southern Lebanon as its forces continued to detonate buildings and undertake combing operations there. So far, Israel has withdrawn from just 11 of the dozens of Lebanese towns it still holds.
In a statement, Israel’s army said its strikes were “in accordance with the ceasefire agreement”, under which Hizbollah must dismantle its remaining military infrastructure south of the Litani river and pull back its forces some 30km inland from the border with Israel.
Israel said it had acted only after it had raised its concerns about these specific sites to the ceasefire monitoring mechanism — an international body staffed by officials from Lebanon and Israel’s armed forces, the US and France, as well as the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon — “without any action being taken to address them”.
A fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group came into effect on November 27 following more than a year of cross-border fire, which began after Hizbollah began launching rockets towards Israel “in solidarity” with Gaza on October 8, 2023.
Almost a year later, Israel launched an expanded air and ground offensive against Hizbollah, which killed more than 4,000 people and destroyed broad tracts of the country’s south and east.
Israel’s campaign also decimated the militant group’s commanding ranks following the assassination of veteran leader Hassan Nasrallah, leaving it reeling. More than 140 Israeli civilians and soldiers were also killed.
Lebanon is alleging hundreds of violations of the ceasefire since the truce, including air strikes and ground operations targeting what Israel says are bases belonging to Hizbollah, which it accuses of attempting to move weapons before they can be confiscated and destroyed by Lebanon’s army.
Earlier this month, the UN’s peacekeeping forces accused Israel of a “flagrant violation” of Security Council Resolution 1701, which forms the basis of the ceasefire agreement.
Last week, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said that Hizbollah had yet to completely withdraw to beyond the Litani river. Israel also accuses Hizbollah of repeated ceasefire violations.
“If this condition is not met there will be no agreement — and Israel will be forced to act on its own to ensure the safe return of the residents of the north [of Israel] to their homes,” Katz told the IDF Northern Command.
IDF officials have also said Lebanon’s Armed Forces may need more time to demilitarise the country’s south, prompting some Lebanese officials to wonder whether Israel was looking to extend the ceasefire.
Hizbollah, for years the dominant political and military force in Lebanon which was severely diminished during 14 months of brutal war, has threatened to resume fighting if Israel does not fully withdraw its forces by January 26.
Lebanon was in the throes of forming a new government this week, following the naming of Joseph Aoun as president last week.
Aoun, the head of Lebanon’s Armed Forces, was crucial to implementing the ceasefire. He has vowed as president to enforce it in full and pledged to work towards a “national security strategy” that would “enable the Lebanese state . . . to remove the Israeli occupation and repel its aggression”.
He added he would work to give the state the “monopoly” on the right to carry weapons, an apparent reference to Hizbollah’s forces.
Additional reporting by Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv
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