Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
Another wave of Israeli strikes targeted Lebanon late on April 8, following reports of Hezbollah showing willingness to disarm.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said that the strikes hit a building in the Hawsh Tal Safiyya area close to the town of Boudai to the west of the city of Baalbek in the northeast of the country. No casualties were reported by the official agency.
Later, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced in a brief statement that it had struck a building used to store weapons used by Hezbollah’s aerial defense unit.
“The presence of the weapons in the area constituted a threat to the State of Israel and a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the statement reads.
Hezbollah began launching attacks against the IDF on October 8 of 2023, a day after its ally, the Palestinian Hamas Movement, launched a surprise attack from the Gaza Strip into Israel. After taking heavy losses in the confrontation, the group agreed to a ceasefire last November.
The ceasefire, which was brokered by the U.S., was supposed to end all clashes on the Israeli-Lebanese border by February 18. However, the Israeli military continues to launch strikes against Hezbollah. It also maintains troops at five strategic points in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah has so far refrained from responding to the IDF in any way. Nevertheless, this was not enough to satisfy the U.S. or Israel.
During a visit to the Lebanese capital, Beirut, last week, U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus discussed disarming Hezbollah with senior officials of the country, without setting a deadline.
In an interview with Lebanese television channel LBCI broadcast, Ortagus said that the U.S. continued to press the Lebanese government “to fully fulfill the cessation of hostilities, and that includes disarming Hezbollah and all militias,” adding it should happen “as soon as possible.”
Ortagus went on to describe Hezbollah, the largest Shiite party in Lebanon, as a “cancer” in a separate interview with the Saudi news channel Al-Arabiya.
“When you have cancer in the body, you don’t just treat part of it — you cut it all out,” the diplomat said.
“Lebanese leaders can either choose to let Lebanon decline further into the abyss or take back their country. If they make the hard decision, they will have US support,” she added.
In the face of unprecedented pressure, a senior Hezbollah official told Reuter on April 8 that the group was ready to hold talks with the Lebanese president about its weapons if Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon and stops its strikes. The official noted that any such discussion should be held in the context of a national defense strategy.
“Hezbollah is ready to discuss the matter of its arms if Israel withdraws from the five points, and halts its aggression against the Lebanese,” the senior official told Reuters.
While Hezbollah has not yet officially confirmed the report, such a political maneuver will not be surprising considering that with the fall of the regime of president Bashar al-Assad in Syria the group lost the ability to maintain and supply its large forces in Lebanon.
A recent report by the Saudi al-Hadath news outlet said that Hezbollah was now using a complex naval route to smuggle weapons from Iran to Lebanon, relying mainly on the port of Beirut. The unverified report alleged that figures from the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force were involved in smuggling operations at the port.
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hezbollah refuses to defend the alawite idiots who handed over their weapons to isis.pamela geller claims that isis killed 100,000 alawite idiots dan kovalik claims that isis killed 40,000 alawite idiots. not a single missile came from iraq or yemen to help the alawite idiots. does everyone from iran to russia agree that these people really deserved the main darwin awards?
it is absolutely better for this planet not to be inhabited by people who are stupid enough to hand over their weapons to their main enemy.
their women and girls are now prostitutes in idlib because they weren’t as smart as ukrainian and israeli women. israeli women fight shoulder to shoulder with israeli men and a twelve-year-old ukrainian girl killed daria dugina. mom was the main accomplice in the murder of a journalist by a little girl. in syria hts has a bunch of sitting alawite ducks. but if these people don’t deserve the genocide that’s happening to them, i really don’t know who does.
turkey has a fairly large alawite population, and if not sooner, in the 2028 elections, erdogan will have to explain the erasure of syria’s alawite population. then he will undoubtedly be defeated by a pro-western candidate. given trump’s economic successes, i am absolutely certain that a democrat will win the american elections 2028 year. nato’s two most powerful armies will be aligned again…
these alawites were so stupid that they handed over their weapons to hts even though they should have known that without weapons they were definitely dead. with weapons,they would at least have some chance, because the druze protect their villages quite well…
no i̇ think bashar al assad was main idiot not alawite people
israel continue attacking hzb because they fear that war can star again and israel dont have enough ammo and iron dome rockets to confront hzb, israel try to avoid the deployment of rocket launchers once hzb destroyed intel, ews, antibattery radars which were deployed in mount hermon and other parts of lebanon-israeli border.
i don’t have exact proof. but these alawites do seem like idiots. i don’t think a lot of people in lebanon learned from their mistakes considering they want to disarm hezbollah in lebanon.
half starved poverty stricken ‘idiots’ may act in irrational ways.
i’m more interested in whether the druze are a more intelligent species, that they didn’t hand over their weapons to the hts terrorists?
the druze are smart people and know very well who their friends are and who their enemies are. if you hand over your weapons to the terrorist hts, you are more than obviously so stupid that it is right for your son to have his heart cut out alive and your daughter to be sold to idlib.
handing weapons to the jewish nazis is no better than handing your weapons to hts
some of them fight for israel. i think those druze are doing the intelligent thing with that.
never disarm with drooling jewish fascists next door. they are never satisfied
i’m more interested in why hezbollah and iran supports hts?
there is no evidence they support them directly. but the iranians can still cause israel trouble in syria if they support hts. hts are useful idiots remember. mercenaries fight for money not honor
disarming is a death sentence. smh 🤦
now why the hell would hezbollah disarm? if they want lebanon to be part of greater israel that would be the best way to make it happen, i don’t buy it.
agree with you cromwell, it isn’t going to happen. hezbollah will rebuild it’s supply of rockets and use them to destroy zio forts in southern lebanon and drive the fascists out
most smarter is vvp, who made the deal with zionist entity at victory parade on red square a 6 years back. zionist after that bombed syria 6 years every week with impunity and vvp got as barter ….. (please advise me, i forgot what vvp got back as barter in this deal).
kudos points with his western banker ‘partners’