The Lebanese Army has increased its deployment in the South in recent months, confiscating Hezbollah weapons and dismantling its positions under the terms of a U.S.- and France-brokered cease-fire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel, The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing Prime Minister Nawaf Salam Lebanese military officials and diplomats, with whom the publication says it interviewed.

“The army is making serious progress," Salam told the Post. "It’s expanding and consolidating its presence in the south.” Salam said his government is working to ensure it holds the monopoly on weapons both “north and south of the Litani.”

Calls for Hezbollah's complete disarmament, across the country, not just south of the Litani, have mounted in recent weeks, and President Joseph Aoun has been leading discussions with Hezbollah on the matter. Aoun's statements point to a possible integration of Hezbollah into the state defense strategy and a state monopoly on arms.

Military officials indicated that 1,500 additional soldiers have been deployed in southern Lebanon so far, bringing the total to 6,000, and that 4,000 more are in the process of being recruited. The army has also resumed reconnaissance flights, set up checkpoints, and secured several localities after the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers.

The cease-fire agreement provides for the gradual deployment of 10,000 Lebanese soldiers, tasked with disarming Hezbollah in the South. A cease-fire monitoring committee, composed of five members and led by an American official, is overseeing its implementation.

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A diplomat privy to the process told the Post on condition of anonymity that the committee receives coordinates of weapons storage facilities and missile launchers from Israel or U.N. peacekeepers, and then passes this information on to the Lebanese Army, whose role it is to intervene. According to this diplomat, more than 500 military sites operated by Hezbollah and other groups have been dismantled to date.

Fragile cease-fire

Key to the Lebanese Army's successful deployment in the South, is the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory. The shaky cease-fire was meant to facilitate the withdrawal of Hezbollah forces to north of the Litani and Israeli forces back over the border. However, after first requesting and receiving an extension to the deadline for its withdrawal, the Israeli army then announced it would continue to occupy five "strategic points" on the Lebanese side of the border.

Since the truce came into effect, Israel has killed 143 people, according to L'Orient Today's count, and continues to bomb the country with impunity.

In late March, two incidents where unknown actors fired rockets into Israeli territory led to escalated violence from Israel. Despite the fact that in neither cases, did any of the five rockets that were fired in total actually reach Israeli territory, Israel responded by bombing dozens of sites across southern Lebanon, and on the second occasion, even bombed Beirut's southern suburbs.

Hezbollah firmly denied any involvement in either rocket launching cases. While searching for the perpetrators of these attacks, the Lebanese Army arrested suspects linked to Hamas.

Despite the progress made by the Lebanese Army in the South, it would face a significant challenge to achieve Hezbollah's complete disarmament. Already occupied with the heavy task of securing the Lebanese-Syrian border, whose configuration has changed since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, it also depends on international aid to finance just about everything: salaries, fuel, food...