BEIRUT: Lebanon’s president said disarming Hezbollah was a “delicate” matter, as authorities reported Israeli strikes on Sunday that killed two people in the country’s south.
The series of raids came despite a November ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, which Washington has been pressing the Lebanese government to disarm.
Israel’s military said it “eliminated” two Hezbollah operatives and targeted military infrastructure belonging to the Iran-backed group.
President Joseph Aoun said that restricting the bearing of arms to the state was “a sensitive, delicate issue that is fundamental to preserving civil peace” and required due “consideration and responsibility”.
Lebanon would implement a state monopoly on weapons, he told reporters, “but we have to wait for the circumstances” to allow this, adding that “nobody is speaking to me about timing or pressure”.
“Any controversial domestic issue in Lebanon can only be approached through conciliatory, non-confrontational dialogue and communication. If not, we will lead Lebanon to ruin,“ he added.
Hezbollah, long a dominant force in Lebanon, was weakened in its latest war with its arch-foe, which included an Israeli ground incursion and two months of heavy bombardment, decimating the group’s leadership.
Strikes on south
On Sunday, Lebanon’s health ministry said an “Israeli enemy strike on a vehicle in Kaouthariyet al-Saiyad”, located inland between the southern cities of Sidon and Tyre, killed one person and wounded two others.
It later said another Israeli strike “on a house in Hula”, near the border, killed one person.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it “eliminated” the deputy head of a Hezbollah unit who “operated to smuggle weapons and funds” into Lebanon in order to rebuild the group’s military capabilities.
It did not specify where the strike took place.
The military later said it “eliminated” a Hezbollah operative in Hula, and struck “launchers and a (Hezbollah) military infrastructure site” in the Nabatiyeh area.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency additionally reported that Israeli aircraft launched “a series of raids” in the mountainous Iqlim al-Tuffah region east of the coastal city of Sidon.
It also reported more strikes in the adjacent Jezzine district and near Arnoun, closer to the border.
Israel’s military has continued to conduct regular strikes in Lebanon despite the November 27 ceasefire, though Sunday’s reported raids were broader than usual.
A statement from the presidency said Aoun had followed up with Lebanon’s army chief on “the Israeli attacks on a number of southern villages”.
Army seizes rockets
On Friday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said the group “will not let anyone disarm” it, adding it was ready for dialogue on a “defence strategy”, “but not under the pressure of occupation” by Israel.
His comments came hours after another senior Hezbollah official said the group would refuse to discuss handing over its weapons until Israel withdrew completely from south Lebanon.
Under the truce, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
Israel was to withdraw all its forces from south Lebanon, but troops remain in five positions that it deems “strategic”.
Lebanon’s army has been deploying as Israeli troops have withdrawn, and has also been dismantling Hezbollah military infrastructure.
The army said an officer and two soldiers were killed Sunday in Braiqaa, in the Nabatiyeh district, when munitions they were transporting exploded.
Aoun said the three servicemen “fell while performing their mission to preserve security and stability”.
The army also said separately that its forces had confiscated rockets and launchers in south Lebanon’s Sidon-Zahrani area and detained a number of people over a plan to fire them towards Israeli-held territory, without saying if those detained were affiliated with any group.
