Israel warns of more Lebanon strikes if Hezbollah not disarmed
TEL AVIV : Israel warned Friday that it will keep striking Lebanon until militant group Hezbollah has been disarmed, hours after it hit south Beirut in what Lebanese leaders called a major violation of a November ceasefire.
An Israeli military evacuation call issued ahead of Thursday's strikes sent huge numbers of residents of the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, long a bastion of Iran-backed Hezbollah, fleeing for their lives.
The attack on what the Israeli military said was Hezbollah's underground drone factories came on the eve of Eid al-Adha, one of the main religious festivals of the Muslim calendar.
The strikes came around an hour after Israel's military spokesman issued an evacuation call, and sent plumes of smoke billowing over Beirut.
The attack came six months after a ceasefire agreement was sealed in a bid to end hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.
'There will be no calm in Beirut, and no order or stability in Lebanon, without security for the State of Israel,' Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
'Agreements must be honoured and if you do not do what is required, we will continue to act, and with great force.'
Under the ceasefire brokered by the US and France, Lebanon committed to disarming Hezbollah, which was once reputed to be more heavily armed than the state itself.
Hezbollah sparked months of deadly hostilities by launching cross-border attacks on northern Israel in what it described as an act of solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas following its Oct 7, 2023 attack.
The war left Hezbollah massively weakened, with a string of top commanders including its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah killed and weapons caches dotted around Lebanon incinerated.
Israel has carried out repeated strikes on south Lebanon since the truce, but strikes targeting Beirut's southern suburbs have been rare.
'Following Hezbollah's extensive use of UAVs as a central component of its terrorist attacks on the State of Israel, the terrorist organisation is operating to increase production of UAVs for the next war,' the military said, calling the activities 'a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon'.
Under the truce, Hezbollah fighters were to withdraw north of the Litani river, about 30km from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south.
Israel was to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon but it has kept some in five areas it deems 'strategic'.
The Lebanese army has been deploying in the south and removing Hezbollah infrastructure, with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam saying Thursday that it had dismantled 'more than 500 military positions and arms depots' in the area.
Following the strike on Thursday, Lebanon's leaders accused Israel of a 'flagrant' ceasefire violation by launching strikes ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
President Joseph Aoun voiced 'firm condemnation of the Israeli aggression' and 'flagrant violation of an international accord… on the eve of a sacred religious festival'.
The prime minister too issued a statement condemning the strikes as a violation of Lebanese sovereignty.
One resident of southern Beirut described grabbing her children and fleeing her home after receiving an ominous warning before the strikes.
'I got a phone call from a stranger who said he was from the Israeli army,' said the woman, Violette, who declined to give her last name.
Israel also issued an evacuation warning for the Lebanese village of Ain Qana, around 20km from the border.
The Israeli military then launched a strike on a building there that it alleged was a Hezbollah base, according to Lebanon's official National News Agency.
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