A cloud of smoke erupts from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the diverse and densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut during its widespread bombing campaign in Lebanon that, by late November, had killed around 4,000 people, pictured here on Oct. 19, 2024. (Credit: AFP)
Several Israeli media outlets, as well as a Saudi newspaper, have published reports this week relaying claims that Israel is nearing a point of reigniting a full-out military offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, without, however, citing any sources for these claims.
The Israeli news site Ynet News claimed that the Israeli army is preparing for a "limited offensive" against the party, whose members it has been targeting and killing on a near daily basis since agreeing to a cease-fire last November. Hezbollah has not retaliated against any of the Israeli attacks.
"The plan includes a series of air strikes targeting weapons production facilities across the country, mainly in the Bekaa Valley and Beirut," Ynet claimed.
The Saudi media outlet Asharq al-Awsat echoed the Israeli media's warmongering rhetoric, going so far as to headline that "the Israeli army is preparing preventive strikes against Hezbollah," repeating claims published last week by the Israeli newspaper Daily Maariv.
"The Israeli army considers such a war inevitable and says that the only question is when, so it will not wait and will strike first," the article stated.
The outlets shared recurring accusations made by Israel against Lebanon that the Lebanese Army's disarmament of Hezbollah south of the Litani River was not progressing quickly enough.
However, Lebanese Army chief Rudolph Haykal told Cabinet last week that his soldiers have nearly completed the first phase of the disarmament plan — which includes disarming Hezbollah south of the Litani river — and has established control over most of southern Lebanon, save for areas occupied by the Israeli army.
The Israeli and Saudi outlets also repeated accusations against Hezbollah of smuggling or producing "large quantities of rockets and drones," according to supposed Israeli intelligence. However, the Lebanese Army's disarmament plan, drawn up at the request of and later approved by Cabinet, also lays out a containment strategy for blocking all of Hezbollah's supply routes.
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