Lebanon Failing To Honor Hezbollah Disarmament Agreement as Terror Group Rearms, Israeli Military Official Tells the Sun

The Lebanese military is not putting enough effort into dismantling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in zones handed over by the IDF as the terror group continues to rearm, an Israeli military official has told The New York Sun. In June, Israel and Lebanon agreed to launch a series of “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon where the Lebanese military would take over control from the IDF and begin disarming Hezbollah.Two pilot zones have been established so far, which include eight areas: three north of the Litani River and five south of it. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the military official said: “We are not seeing the Lebanese Armed Forces conducting the clearance operations required under the agreement. In other words, they are not going from structure to structure, searching for weapons and ammunition, or ensuring that Hezbollah has been removed from the pilot zones.”“The purpose of the pilot zones was to clear the area and deploy an independent, third-party force to verify that the mission had been completed. Once the process was complete, the Lebanese government could move on to the ‘ construction phase’,” the official added. While the IDF remains “highly committed” and is investing “significant efforts” to ensure the success of the pilot zones, the official said Israel cannot say the same about the other side. “As long as the objectives of the first two pilot zones have not been completed, it will not be possible to move forward with establishing additional pilot zones,” the official added. Hezbollah, meanwhile, is working to” reorganize and rearm”, the official said, although the terror group is “now barely present in the areas under IDF control.”Last week, Hassan Fadlallah, a member of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, admitted that a truck full of explosives that was stopped en route to Beirut from the Beqaa Valley was “intended exclusively for use against the Israeli occupation” in southern Lebanon. “It is well known that (Hezbollah’s) weapons include explosive devices — a subject the enemy has frequently addressed and whose impact it deeply fears,” he was quoted as saying. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called it a “criminal operation” and was quoted by Lebanon’s Information Minister Paul Morcos that the C-4 explosives found in the truck had previously been used in “infamous political assassinations in Lebanon’s modern history.”While the Lebanese government outlawed all non-state military activity in the country, including Hezbollah’s, the terror group has refused to comply, slamming Beirut for holding direct talks with Israel to reach a peace agreement. The IDF is still stationed in a “security zone” in southern Lebanon that runs along the Israeli border and has destroyed numerous houses in Lebanese villages. The UN has condemned the destruction harshly, with United Nations’ human rights chief, Volker Türk, saying: “Demolition of this type raises huge flags about compliance with international humanitarian law.”The IDF says the houses that have been destroyed served as Hezbollah infrastructure, such as weapon storages. “We have confiscated and dismantled tens of thousands of Hezbollah weapons, and we continue to locate and dismantle tunnels,” the military official said. Battle Over UNIFILThe United Nations Interim Force at Lebanon will leave the country by the end of the year after the UN Security Council decided not to extend its mandate any further. The force was created in 1978 and was strengthened in 2006 following the war between Israel and Hezbollah. But despite having roughly 7,500 peacekeeping soldiers on the ground to monitor and report illegal activities, such as Hezbollah’s illegal military presence in southern Lebanon, the terror group grew stronger than ever from 2006 until October 8, 2023 when it launched a war with Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Israel has criticised UNIFIL repeatedly for allowing Hezbollah to prosper on its watch and for complicating the IDF’s war against the terror group in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military official told the Sun that UNIFIL “was like a thorn in our side” during the war: “In fact, it went far beyond that – they were actively endangering both their own forces and ours.”UNIFIL has indeed come under attack from both Hezbollah and the IDF in the past couple of years. “While everyone says that a vacuum will emerge when they leave at the end of the year, we say the opposite: this is an opportunity for the Lebanese Armed Forces to stop hiding behind the failed UN force and take responsibility for controlling the area,” the official added. A second Israeli official told the Sun that there has been “a major campaign to maintain an international presence in Lebanon. The UN Secretary-General even suggested establishing a new peacekeeping force.”“Yet, no one seems to be taking into consideration UNIFIL’s massive failure in dealing with Hezbollah. Weapons and ammunition were repeatedly discovered near UNIFIL positions,” the official said. In October 2024, the IDF took international journalists into southern Lebanon to see a Hezbollah tunnel located about a hundred meters from a UNIFIL base near the Israeli border. “The problem wasn’t simply that UNIFIL failed to do its job; Hezbollah was actually using UNIFIL facilities as cover for its military activities. We expect Lebanon to negotiate with Israel, through the trilateral talks under US auspices. We do not need another thousand UN soldiers whose only purpose is to write reports and allow Hezbollah to grow stronger under their noses,” the official added. The Sun reached out to the UN for a comment on the claims made by Israel but has not received an answer so far. Last week, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, concluded a three-day visit to Lebanon where he met with a number of senior officials, including President Joseph Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Defense Minister Michel Menassa, Foreign Affairs Minister Youssef Rajji and Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) Commander General Rodolphe Haykal. “The Lebanese authorities themselves have been very clear that they think there needs to be this third party — the UN — avoiding unattended escalation and incidents spiraling out of control between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the LAF,” Mr. Lacroix said during a visit to UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura.

Lebanon Failing To Honor Hezbollah Disarmament Agreement as Terror Group Rearms, Israeli Military Official Tells the Sun

Lebanon Failing To Honor Hezbollah Disarmament Agreement as Terror Group Rearms, Israeli Military Official Tells the Sun

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