The ruins of a building destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut, June 6, 2025. (Credir: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient Today.)
BEIRUT — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated on Friday that the army would continue striking Beirut if Lebanon does not disarm Hezbollah. This warning came after a series of Israeli airstrikes that destroyed buildings in the densely populated southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital.
"There will be no calm in Beirut, no order or stability in Lebanon without security for the State of Israel. Agreements must be respected, and if you don't do what’s necessary, we will continue to act — and with great force," Katz declared in a statement.
At least eight separate strikes — some involving multiple missiles — hit on Thursday evening what Israel claimed were “underground infrastructure used to manufacture drones.” The Israeli army had issued an evacuation order about an hour before the strikes, causing panic in the streets of Bourj al-Barajneh, Haret Hreik, and Hadath, as residents gathered to mark the beginning of the Eid al-Adha holiday. The bombings left an undetermined number of people injured, with several hospitals in the area reporting casualties to L'Orient Today.
These strikes also occurred after rockets — claimed by various groups — were fired from southern Syria on Tuesday night.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam have made state monopoly over arms — and, by extension, Hezbollah’s disarmament — a central objective of their term. However, Hezbollah has refused to disarm by force, instead calling for a national dialogue on Lebanon’s defense strategy, insisting it will not yield while Israeli forces continue to occupy parts of Lebanese territory.
In a speech on Thursday marking his cabinet’s first 100 days, Salam stated that since the cease-fire took effect on Nov. 27, 2024, the Lebanese Army had dismantled “more than 500 military sites south of the Litani River,” an area where Hezbollah had been heavily deployed before being required to withdraw as part of the November agreement.
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