Security forces and residents inspect and clear debris scattered across a road at the scene of an Israeli airstrike that hit a car in the coastal town of Saadiyat, south of Beirut, Lebanon, on May 9, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

Lebanon’s Army will fully disarm Hezbollah near the border with Israel within three months, Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi told AFP on Tuesday (September 9, 2025) in an interview that provided details of a plan rejected by the militant group.

In August, the Lebanese government, under pressure from the United States and Israeli strikes, ordered the military to draw up disarmament plans which cabinet said last week the Army would begin implementing, without disclosing details.

Raggi said Army chief Rodolphe Haykal presented a five-stage plan that would ensure the Lebanese state has a monopoly over weapons in the country.

The first stage should take “three months… during which the removal of weapons will be completed south of the Litani River”, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Israel, Raggi said.

“There will be no warehouses, no weapons, no weapons transfers, no fighters, and no display of arms” in the area by the end of November, he said.

During the first phase, the army will implement security measures across the country, he added.

The army will “tighten and increase the number of checkpoints, prevent the movement and carrying of weapons… but without conducting raids, arresting individuals, or confiscating weapons from warehouses”, Raggi said.

“At the very least, the movement of weapons from one area to another will be prohibited.”

Raggi said the next four phases of the plan will see disarmament in other regions, including Beirut and the eastern Bekaa, “but without timelines”.

Hezbollah has been severely weakened by a year-long conflict with Israel, including two months of open war, that destroyed part of its arsenal and decimated its leadership.

It has along with its allies in the government opposed the disarmament push, which Lebanon says is part of a ceasefire deal that ended the war last November.

In June, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that the Lebanese army had dismantled more than 500 Hezbollah military positions and weapons depots in the south, where the group built a large number of tunnels and still holds sway.

Limited capabilities

Last week, Information Minister Paul Morcos told journalists that the army will implement its disarmament plan “in accordance with the available capabilities, which are limited in terms of logistics, material and human resources”.

Referring to the end-of-year deadline, Raggi said army chief Haykal has briefed the government that there are insufficient “human, material, or technical capabilities to be able to do everything within that period, and that he needs more time”.

In August, Lebanon approved a US proposal that laid out the timeline and mechanism for dismantling Hezbollah’s arsenal, and stipulated Israel’s total withdrawal from Lebanon.

Lebanon said last week that “the Israeli side has not yet shown any commitment” to the contents of the American proposal presented by envoy Tom Barrack.

It insisted any progress on implementation was conditional on other parties, primarily Israel.

Lebanon remains bound to disarm the Iran-backed group regardless, Raggi said, explaining that “arms monopoly is not linked to Barrack’s proposal” but a matter of state policy.

Diplomatic pressure

Last year’s truce, based on a 2006 UN Security Council resolution that said all non-state groups should be disarmed, called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon and an end to strikes on the country.

But Israel has repeatedly bombed its northern neighbour since and kept soldiers deployed in five border areas it deems strategic.

Raggi said Lebanon is exerting diplomatic pressure to push Israel to stop its attacks and withdraw its troops.

Hezbollah has strongly rejected the disarmament bid, accusing the government of implementing US and Israeli directives.

Before the war and the overthrow of its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad shifted the balance of power in the region, Hezbollah was the most powerful political force in Lebanon, able to sway and disrupt governments.

It was the only group to keep its weapons after Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of resistance against Israel, which occupied the south until 2000.

Published – September 09, 2025 10:02 pm IST

A man walks near a flag of Hezbollah and portraits of the group’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the rubble of a building destroyed during Israel’s air and ground offensive in the southern Lebanese town of Khiam on January 28, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The Israeli military said on Friday (January 31, 2025) it struck several Hezbollah targets overnight in the Bekaa Valley and along the Syrian-Lebanese border.

The Army said the targets include a facility used for underground weapons development and another associated with the smuggling of arms into Lebanon.

On January 30 2025, Israel said it intercepted a surveillance drone launched by Hezbollah calling it “a breach of the ceasefire agreement” between Israel and Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Israel reached a ceasefire in late November, ending a deadly conflict that began with the Gaza war in 2023. The U.S. confirmed on Sunday that the agreement, which includes a 60-day period for Israeli troop withdrawal, will remain in effect until Feb. 18, extending the original Jan. 26 deadline.

Israel has carried out multiple strikes on Lebanese territory since the ceasefire extension killing and injuring more than 100 people.

The most recent attack is a drone strike that injured at least five people in southern Lebanese town of Majdal Selm.

Israeli authorities did not blame the explosion on Hezbollah or say it was a violation of the November 26 ceasefire agreement. File
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Four Israeli soldiers who were killed in southern Lebanon were likely killed in an accidental detonation of explosives as they demolished a Hezbollah tunnel laden with weapons, Israel’s Army Radio reported on Monday (December 9, 2024).

The Israeli military said that four soldiers fell in combat, without providing further details. Army Radio said that the incident happened on Sunday (December 8, 2024) and that an initial review found that the detonation set off secondary explosions, leading to the collapse of the tunnel while the soldiers were in it.

Israeli authorities did not blame the explosion on Hezbollah or say it was a violation of the November 26 ceasefire agreement, though the two sides have accused each other of other infractions over the past two weeks.

Rubble lies at the site of the historic ‘Al-Manshiya’ building damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, near the Roman ruins of Baalbek, in the eastern city of Baalbek, Lebanon, November 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Israeli military on Thursday (November 28, 2024) said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.

There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel’s aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.

The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah militants are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers.

On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon’s state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.

The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”

Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.

A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief media.

The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese militant group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.

Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.

More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.

Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.

In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.

Men carry Hezbollah flags and a picture depicting late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as they drive past damaged buildings at the entrance of Beirut’s southern suburbs, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on November 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah began at 7.30 am IST on Wednesday (Nov. 27, 2024) appeared to be holding under a deal brokered by the U.S. and France. Following the announcement of the truce, people in both countries started returning to homes in the border area shattered by 14 months of fighting.

The agreement, a rare diplomatic feat in a region racked by conflict, ended the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in years. But Israel is still fighting its other arch foe, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed the ceasefire deal and thanked both the US and France for their efforts.

In the first statement by Hezbollah’s operations centre since the truce was announced, the group made no direct mention of the ceasefire and vowed to continue its resistance.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the ceasefire was “the first ray of hope” in months of Middle East conflict.

The Blue Line was set by the UN in 2000 after the end of Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon and now serves as a de facto border between the two countries.

What is UNSC resolution 1701?

The UN Security Council resolution 1701 is the agreement that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006 and it stipulates that the only armed groups in the area south of Lebanon’s Litani River should be the Lebanese army and UN peacekeeping forces (UN Interim Force in Lebanon – UNIFIL). It also prohibits Israel from encroaching on Lebanese territory by land, sea or air.

Present situation in southern Lebanon

Lebanon’s army, entrusted with ensuring the ceasefire lasts, said it had begun deploying additional troops south of the Litani River into a region heavily bombarded by Israel. The river meets the sea about 30 km (20 miles) north of the Israeli border.

Israel also struck eastern cities and towns and the southern suburbs of Beirut, and Israeli troops pushed around 6 km (4 miles) into Lebanon in ground incursions launched in September. Under the ceasefire terms, Israeli forces can remain in Lebanon for 60 days.

Israel-Lebanon conflict

The ceasefire aims to end a conflict across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed at least 3,768 people in Lebanon since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Diplomatic efforts will now turn to shattered Gaza, where Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israeli communities. However, there were no hopes of peace returning any time soon to the Palestinian enclave.

(With inputs from Reuters, Graphic News, and AP)

Collateral damage:Civil defence workers extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut, Lebanon.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Lebanese civilians most devastated by the Israel-Hezbollah war are Shia Muslims, and many of them believe they are being unfairly punished because they share a religious identity with Hezbollah militants and often live in the same areas.

“This is clear,” said Wael Murtada, a young Shia man who anxiously watched paramedics search rubble after a recent Israeli airstrike destroyed his uncle’s two-story home and killed 10 people. “Who else is being attacked?”

Israel has concentrated its attacks on villages in southern and northeastern Lebanon and neighbourhoods south of Beirut. This is where many Hezbollah militants operate from, and their families live side by side with large numbers of Shia Muslims who are not members of the group.

Israel insists its war is with Hezbollah and not the Lebanese people — or the Shia faith. It says it only targets members of the Iran-backed militant group to try to end their year-long campaign of firing rockets over the border.

But Israel’s stated objectives mean little to people like Mr. Murtada as growing numbers of Shia civilians also die in a war that escalated sharply in recent months.

Shia Muslims do not just measure the suffering of their community in deaths and injuries. Entire blocks of the coastal city of Tyre have been flattened. Large parts of the historic market in the city of Nabatiyeh, which dates to the Ottoman era, have been destroyed.

Sectarian tensions

As Shia Muslims flee their war-torn villages and neighbourhoods, the conflict is increasingly following them to other parts of Lebanon, and this is fueling tensions.

Scores of people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes on Christian, Sunni, and Druze areas where displaced Shia Muslims had taken refuge. Many residents in these areas now think twice before providing shelter to displaced people out of fear they may have links to Hezbollah.

“The Israelis are targeting all of Lebanon,” said Wassef Harakeh, a lawyer from Beirut’s southern suburbs who in 2022 ran against Hezbollah in the country’s parliamentary elections and whose office was recently demolished by an Israeli airstrike.

He believes part of Israel’s goal is to exacerbate frictions within the small Mediterranean country, which has a long history of sectarian fighting even though diverse groups live together peacefully these days.

Some Shia Muslims say statements from the Israeli military over the years have only reinforced suspicions that their wider community is being targeted as a means to put pressure on Hezbollah.

One commonly cited example is the so-called Dahiyeh doctrine, which was first espoused by Israeli generals during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. It is a reference to the southern suburbs of Beirut where Hezbollah is headquartered and where entire residential blocks, bridges, and shopping compounds were destroyed in both wars. Israel says Hezbollah hides weapons and fighters in such areas, turning them into legitimate military targets.

Hezbollah has long boasted about its ability to deter Israel, but the latest war has proven otherwise and taken a severe toll on its leadership.

Some Shia Muslims fear the weakening of Hezbollah will lead to the entire community being sidelined politically once the war is over. But others believe it could offer a political opening for more diverse Shia voices.

Israeli fire has killed over a dozen Lebanese soldiers since September (File)