Israeli defense minister says Lebanese government must fulfill commitment to disarm Hezbollah

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that the Lebanese government must fulfill its commitment to disarm Hezbollah and remove it from southern Lebanon. The Israeli military claimed in a statement on Sunday that Saturday night's strike on Kfar Roummane (Nabatieh district) had killed four "Hezbollah members."

Katz also said maximum enforcement efforts would continue and intensify to protect Israeli residents in the north.

Under the November 2024 cease-fire that ended more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon agreed that only state security forces should bear arms in the country. That would mean fully disarming Hezbollah.

Since then, Lebanon has been under pressure from the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah's domestic rivals to disarm the group.

Lebanese Army sources told Reuters they had blown up so many Hezbollah arms caches they had run out of explosives, but they have had to walk a careful tightrope to avoid inflaming tensions within the country.

Hezbollah was severely weakened by Israel's war last year, which killed thousands of fighters and longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah. The Israeli war on Lebanon also killed over 4,000 people, including 1,100 women and children, and destroyed swathes of Lebanon's south and east.

Hezbollah has publicly committed to the cease-fire and has not opposed the seizures of unmanned weapons caches in the South and has not fired on Israel since the November truce, while Israeli attacks continue in Lebanon daily.