The Israeli army carried out several attacks on south Lebanon on Sunay, hours after Beirut said that the disarmament of Hezbollah in the southern Litani River area is “days away” from completion. An Israeli drone struck a car in the southern town of Yater. Minutes later, Israel bombed a motorcycle around 300 meters away from the targeted car.
The Israeli army said it “recently attacked another terrorist from the Hezbollah organization in the Yater area in southern Lebanon,” in a second statement following up on its announcement of the first strike. There were preliminary reports of casualties after the two drone strikes.
Israeli machine gun fire and artillery shelling also struck Kfar Shuba and the nearby Bastra Farm earlier on Sunday.
A day earlier, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam claimed in a statement that the first phase of disarming Hezbollah is nearly complete.
“Prime Minister Salam affirmed that the first phase of the weapons consolidation plan related to the area south of the Litani River is only days away from completion,” Salam’s office said on Saturday.
“The state is ready to move on to the second phase – namely [confiscating weapons] north of the Litani River – based on the plan prepared by the Lebanese army pursuant to a mandate from the government,” it added.
The statement came after talks between Salam and Simon Karam, a former Lebanese ambassador to the US who Beirut recently appointed to hold direct talks with Israeli representatives – in violation of Lebanon’s laws and under heavy US pressure.
The Lebanese government has been vague about the direct talks, which have continued despite Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker and Amal Movement leader Nabih Berri saying recently that Beirut will not “negotiate under fire.”
So far, two direct meetings have been held as part of the ongoing discussions of the US-led ceasefire monitoring mechanism. Salam’s Saturday announcement about the weapons coincided with Israeli drone strikes on the towns of Blida and Taybeh.
In the past two months, Israel has significantly escalated deadly strikes and other violations of the Lebanon ceasefire, claiming that Hezbollah has rearmed itself.
Dozens of Lebanese have been killed since the start of last month alone. Since the ceasefire deal went into effect in November 2024, over 300 people have been killed – including scores of civilians and children.
The Lebanese army has been dismantling Hezbollah’s infrastructure south of the Litani River in line with the ceasefire deal reached last year, saying it has completed 90 percent of the disarmament process in the southern Litani area.
Under US pressure, the Lebanese government adopted a decision in August for the resistance movement’s full disarmament by the end of this year. The Lebanese army was ordered to draft a disarmament plan, which has been kept confidential.
According to reports in recent months, Lebanon has backtracked on its commitment to full disarmament by year’s end – in favor of a phased approach that would continue into 2026.
But Israel has threatened to launch a new campaign against the country unless the resistance surrenders all its arms by the end of 2025. Hezbollah has rejected disarmament, saying it will eventually respond if Israel continues to violate the truce.
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