Hezbollah, on Friday, threatened Lebanon with civil war if the Iranian proxy terrorist group is forced to disarm. “Hezbollah raised the spectre of civil war with a warning on Friday that there would be “no life” in Lebanon if the government sought to confront or eliminate the Iran-backed group,” Reuters reports.
The Lebanese government is obliged to take away Hezbollah’s weapons in keeping with the ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump in November 2024. The terrorist group has repeatedly violated the truce, prompting Israel to conduct limited military operations in the area. “The government wants to control arms in line with a U.S.-backed plan following Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah,” the news agency added.
Hezbollah, directed by the Iranian regime, dragged Lebanon into a war with Israel following the October 7 massacre perpetrated by Hamas. In September 2024, Israel began a military operation against Hezbollah, which led to the elimination of its leadership and large parts of its terrorist fighting force.
The French TV channel Euronews reported Hezbollah’s threat to Lebanon:
Hezbollah’s Naim Qassem rejected Lebanon’s decision to disarm the Iran-backed militant group, calling it a US-Israeli order and warning of a major crisis.Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem threatened open confrontation on Friday if Lebanon’s government proceeds with plans to disarm the militant group, calling the cabinet decision an implementation of “US-Israeli orders.”The Lebanese Council of Ministers approved a decision last week requiring the army to urgently develop a disarmament plan and implement it before year-end, marking the most severe challenge to Hezbollah since the civil war ended in 1990.”The decision is dangerous and exposes the country to a major crisis,” Qassem said during a televised speech in Baalbek. “It strips the resistance and Lebanon of defensive weapons during aggression.”Qassem vowed Hezbollah would not surrender its weapons and warned of armed conflict, if not outright war.
The Israeli military response came after Hezbollah relentlessly fired missiles and drones at northern Israel, forcing more than 70,000 civilians to flee their homes. In July 2024, a Hezbollah missile struck a soccer field in the Golan Heights, killing 12 children.
Despite the elimination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike in late September and a U.S.-backed ceasefire, the Iranian proxy terrorist group has been trying to regroup its forces and rebuild its infrastructure in southern Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been conducting regular counter-terrorism operations to dismantle Hezbollah terrorist buildup on its northern border.
A day after the IDF leadership approved the plan to take over the terrorist-held Gaza City, Israeli troops carried out operations in the area. The IDF operation was concentrated around the Zeitoun area, on the outskirts of Gaza City.
“The troops are operating to locate explosives, eliminate terrorists, and dismantle terrorist infrastructure above and below ground. As part of their activity, the troops struck and dismantled a booby-trapped structure that stored weapons,” the IDF said in a statement Friday. “During the activity, terrorists fired an anti-tank missile toward IDF troops. No injuries to IDF troops were reported. The troops swiftly located and eliminated the terrorists.”
Israeli ground troops were backed by the air force. “The IAF is operating in coordination with the troops in the field, striking military targets and terrorists in the area,” the statement added.
Israeli troops also uncovered and sealed a 4 and a half mile-long terror tunnel in the Beit Hanoun area, northern Gaza, the IDF disclosed on Friday. “The sealing of the tunnel route constitutes another blow to Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure, both above and below ground,” the military assured.
“Over the past four weeks, the Southern Command’s Engineering Corps troops led a large-scale operation to seal a central underground tunnel route approximately 7 kilometers long, in the Beit Hanoun area of the northern Gaza Strip,” the IDF disclosed in a separate statement. “The operation was carried out in cooperation between the troops of the Southern Command’s Engineering Corps, the 99th and 162nd Divisions, the Yahalom Unit, and with the assistance of troops from the 646th, Givati, and the Northern Brigades. The operations involved pumping more than 20,000 cubic meters of sealing material through a dedicated system established along approximately 4.5 kilometers – from the border area near Netiv HaAsara to the heart of the underground tunnel route.”
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