Lebanon pressured to disarm Hezbollah, Israeli strikes persist

Israel launched new strikes in south Lebanon on June 30th, while the US urges Lebanon to completely disarm Hezbollah, according to Al-Monitor.

The state-operated National News Agency reported that an apparent Israeli drone strike hit the outskirts of Ramya, located in Bint Jbeil, early on June 30th.

Israel has intensified its attacks in southern Lebanon, where it claims its mission aims to remove the lingering danger of Hezbollah. Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem denounced the assaults on Nabatiyeh and stated that the Lebanese government must carry out its duties.

Currently, the US is urging Lebanon’s administration to execute a plan that would enforce Hezbollah’s disarmament within two weeks. After accomplishing this, the US would pressure Israel to retreat from one of the five villages it seized in the south.

Hezbollah ignited the conflict with Israel on October 8th 2023, by firing rockets and mortars at Israeli sites to back Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The cross-border clashes intensified in September 2024 into a full-scale war that caused nearly 4,000 deaths and injured more than 15,000 people in Lebanon.

Previously on June 21st, the Israeli armed forces announced that its navy struck an “infrastructure site” of Hezbollah close to the city of Naqoura in southern Lebanon, as conflicts escalate in the Middle East, as reported by Maghrebi and Arab News via AFP.

The military declared in a statement: “Overnight, an Israeli Navy vessel struck a Hezbollah ‘Radwan Force’ terrorist infrastructure site.”

Al-Monitor, National News Agency, Maghrebi.org, Arab News via AFP