JERUSALEM: Israel warned Sunday that its military would step up its attacks against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, a day after the Lebanese Health Ministry reported four people killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Despite a November 2024 cease-fire with the Lebanese militant group, Israel maintains troops in five areas in southern Lebanon and has continued regular strikes.
“Hezbollah is playing with fire, and the president of Lebanon is dragging his feet,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
“The Lebanese government’s commitment to disarm Hezbollah and remove it from southern Lebanon must be implemented. Maximum enforcement will continue and even intensify — we will not allow any threat to the residents of the north.”
Thousands of Israelis living near the northern border with Lebanon were forced to evacuate their homes for months after Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel following the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023.
That set off a more than yearlong conflict that culminated in two months of open war before last year’s cease-fire was agreed upon.
The Iran-backed militant group, which opposes Israel, has been badly weakened by the war but remains armed and financially resilient.
In September 2024, Israel killed the group’s longtime chief, Hassan Nasrallah, along with many other senior leaders over the course of the war.
Since the cease-fire, the United States has increased pressure on Lebanese authorities to disarm the group, a plan opposed by Hezbollah and its allies.
Latest strike
Israel never stopped carrying out airstrikes on Lebanon despite the truce — usually saying it was targeting Hezbollah positions — and has stepped up attacks in recent days.
On Thursday, Israeli ground troops carried out a deadly raid into southern Lebanon, prompting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to order the army to confront such incursions.
Aoun had called for talks with Israel in mid-October after U.S. President Donald Trump helped broker a cease-fire in Gaza.
But Aoun later accused Israel of responding to his offer by intensifying its airstrikes, the latest of which killed four people in the Nabatiyeh district on Saturday, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The official Lebanese National News Agency reported that the Israeli army hit a car “with a guided missile.”
The Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying it killed a member of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force in southern Lebanon.
“The terrorist was involved in transferring weapons and in efforts to reestablish Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon,” the military said, adding that three other members of the group were also killed.
“The terrorists’ activities constituted a threat to the State of Israel and its civilians and a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
