Israel said it struck a series of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Thursday, with President Joseph Aoun denouncing the new attacks as a “fully-fledged crime” and accusing Israel of rejecting Beirut’s overtures towards diplomacy.
The Lebanese military said Israel was preventing the full implementation of a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, which hours earlier had publicly asserted its right to defend itself and rejected the prospect of direct political talks between Lebanon and Israel.
The truce deal was agreed between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024 after more than a year of hostilities, but Israeli attacks in Lebanon have continued as it accuses the militant group of trying to rebuild its forces.
The Israeli military said its strikes on Thursday had targeted “terrorist infrastructure and weapon storage facilities in southern Lebanon”.
“We will not allow Hezbollah to rearm themselves, to recover, build back up its strength, to threaten the state of Israel,” Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian told reporters, accusing the group of “continuous terrorist activities”.
A strike killed one person earlier in the day, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hezbollah construction team.
On Thursday evening, Aoun called the latest strikes “a fully-fledged crime, not only according to the provisions of international humanitarian law… but also a heinous political crime”.
“Nearly a year has passed since the ceasefire came into effect, and during this period, Israel has spared no effort to demonstrate its rejection of any negotiated settlement between the two countries,” he said.
“Your message has been received.”
– Persistent ‘aggression’ –
Lebanon and Israel are still technically in a state of war, but all the recent armed conflicts with Israel were fought by Hezbollah, not the Lebanese military.
The only diplomatic contact between the two countries is through the ceasefire monitoring mechanism, which includes the United States, France and the United Nations.
The body meets regularly at the headquarters of the UN force in southern Lebanon, but the Lebanese and Israeli parties do not directly communicate with each other.
Lebanese officials have recently voiced openness to direct talks with Israel, which maintains troops in five parts of south Lebanon in spite of the ceasefire’s stipulation that it withdraw.
But after Thursday’s strikes, President Aoun said that the more Beirut “expresses its openness to peaceful negotiations to resolve outstanding issues with Israel, the more Israel persists in its aggression against Lebanese sovereignty”.
A Lebanese official told AFP on Thursday that Israel had not responded “positively nor negatively” to the offer of talks.
Last week, US envoy Tom Barrack had said that dialogue with Israel could be the key to easing tensions.
The Lebanese army, meanwhile, accused Israel of seeking to “undermine Lebanon’s stability” with Thursday’s strikes and to “prevent the completion of the army’s deployment in accordance with the cessation of hostilities agreement”.
Under the truce deal, the Lebanese military was meant to deploy to the south alongside UN peacekeepers as Hezbollah pulled back.
The UNIFIL peacekeeping mission said the latest wave of strikes “undermines the progress being made toward a political and diplomatic solution”.
– Disarmament drive –
The attacks came hours after Hezbollah lashed out at Lebanon’s leadership, rejecting suggestions that it might be time to begin direct talks with Israel.
In an open letter to the Lebanese people and their leaders, Hezbollah said it rejected “any political negotiations” between Lebanon and Israel, and that such talks would “not serve the national interest”.
“We reaffirm our legitimate right… to defend ourselves against an enemy that imposes war on our country and does not cease its attacks,” Hezbollah added.
It nevertheless said it remained committed to the ceasefire.
Hezbollah was the only movement in Lebanon that refused to disarm after the 1975-1990 civil war, first claiming it had a duty to liberate territory occupied by Israel, and then to continue defending the country.
The group is backed by Iran, which also fought its own war against Israel earlier this year.
Since the ceasefire, the United States has increased pressure on Lebanese authorities to disarm the group, a move opposed by Hezbollah and its allies.
Lebanon says it has formulated a plan for imposing a state monopoly on weapons, and the government met Thursday to take stock of the disarmament efforts.
Information minister Paul Morcos said afterwards that the cabinet had “commended the progress achieved… despite ongoing obstacles, primarily the continued Israeli hostilities”.
Last week, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Aoun of “dragging his feet” on disarmament.
Hezbollah has criticised the government’s “hasty decision” to take away its weapons, claiming that Israel has taken advantage of the push.
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