Israel launches new strikes in south Lebanon on ceasefire anniversary

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of El Mahmoudiyeh. Photo / Rabih Daher, AFP

The Israeli military has carried out another series of strikes against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, exactly a year into the ceasefire with the militant group.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israeli aircraft launched “a series of raids on Al-Mahmoudiya and Al-Jarmak”, just north of the Litani River.

The November 27, 2024, ceasefire sought to end over a year of hostilities between the two sides.

But Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite the truce, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah members and infrastructure to stop the group from rearming.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said his country was “in a one-sided war of attrition that is escalating”.

The Israeli military said it “struck and dismantled Hezbollah terror infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon”.

It also said it had hit “several launch sites where Hezbollah weapons were stored”, “military posts” used by the Iran-backed group, and a storage facility containing weapons.

Israel’s military “will continue to operate to remove any threat to the State of Israel”, it said.

The military said that ever since the ceasefire, it has been trying to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding by dismantling infrastructure, thwarting its intelligence operations and diminishing its military capabilities.

It said it had carried out around 1200 “targeted activities”, and “eliminated more than 370 terrorists” from Hezbollah, Hamas and other Palestinian groups during the ceasefire.

US pressure

According to the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah was to pull its forces north of the Litani River, some 30km north of the border with Israel, and have its military infrastructure there dismantled.

Under a government-approved plan, the Lebanese army is to dismantle Hezbollah military infrastructure south of the river by the end of the year, before tackling the rest of the country.

The United States is increasing its pressure on the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah.

The Lebanese military has said it is carrying out its plan to disarm the group, but Washington and Israel have accused Lebanese authorities of stalling the process.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun “rejected the Israeli claims”, his office said, adding that the Lebanese army was “preventing armed displays, confiscating ammunition, inspecting tunnels, among other things”.

On Thursday, Aoun met Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the United Nations’ special coordinator for Lebanon, who said that a year on from the ceasefire, “uncertainty remains”.

“For too many Lebanese, the conflict is ongoing – albeit at a lower intensity. And one does not need a crystal ball to understand that as long as the current status quo continues, the spectre of future hostilities will continue to loom large,” she said.

Weapons found

In a statement posted by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Thursday evening, the peacekeeping force said it continued to find “illegal weapons” in southern Lebanon.

UNIFIL said it also recorded over 10,000 air and ground violations of the truce in the past year.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz earlier this week warned there would be “no calm” in Lebanon if Israel’s security was not guaranteed.

An Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday killed Haitham Ali Tabatabai – the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed by Israel since the ceasefire entered into force.

The Lebanese premier slammed Hezbollah’s claims that its weapons deter Israeli aggression.

“These weapons did not protect either Hezbollah’s leaders or the Lebanese people and their property,” Salam said.

“Are Hezbollah’s weapons currently capable of repelling the ongoing Israeli attacks? These weapons have provided neither deterrence nor protection, nor have they brought victory to Gaza.”

- Agence France-Presse