BEIRUT — The Israeli army will "intervene with force" in Lebanon if Hezbollah is not disarmed "by the end of the year," Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened Wednesday during a meeting with the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, according to Israeli Channel 7's website.
"I do not believe Hezbollah will disarm voluntarily. The Americans have required them to disband by the end of the year and I do not see that happening. If it does not, there will be no choice but to intervene again with force in Lebanon," he said, according to the outlet.
The issue of a timeline for Hezbollah's disarmament has come up repeatedly since Cabinet decided on Aug. 5 to keep the monopoly of weapons in the hands of the state.
At the end of last July, the U.S. special envoy for Lebanon, Tom Barrack, warned before a group of journalists that "Lebanon does not have unlimited time" to disarm Hezbollah, and that the timeline for disarmament "is set by Israel, not by Washington," without providing further details.
Although Cabinet on Aug. 5 that Hezbollah would be disarmed throughout Lebanese territory by the end of the year, Cabinet on Sept. 5 appeared to backtrack on its initial commitments.
Although the end of the year remained the deadline for disarming Hezbollah in the area south of the Litani River, on the border with Israel, no timeline has been established for weapons elsewhere in Lebanon.
During his Knesset speech, Israel Katz warned that there would be "no calm" in Lebanon without security for his country. "We will not allow any threat against residents of the north, and maximum pressure will continue to be applied and even intensified," he said, citing as proof "the elimination" Sunday in Beirut of Hezbollah's military chief, according to AFP.
In a first-of-its-kind operation since last June, Israel carried out a strike in Beirut's southern suburbs, assassinating Hezbollah's military wing chief, Haytham Ali Tabataba'i.
"There will be no calm in Beirut nor order and stability in Lebanon as long as the security of the State of Israel is not guaranteed," Katz added.
Rethinking the 'maritime border agreement with Lebanon'
Also at the Knesset, Katz claimed that the "security situation at the northern border [with Lebanon] has never been better in 20 years."
Since the cease-fire that took effect at the end of November 2024 with Lebanon, bringing an end to more than 13 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has killed at least 331 people in Lebanon and wounded another 945, according to a Health Ministry tally published last week.
127 civilians were killed in Lebanon during this period, according to the U.N. on Tuesday.
Israel says it is preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding its forces. For its part, over the same period, Hezbollah fired only one rocket, on Dec. 2, toward Israeli territory, causing no casualties.
Katz also told the Israeli parliament that Tel Aviv will "review [its] position regarding the agreement on the maritime border with Lebanon, which presents several weaknesses and problems," according to Israeli Channel 7.
On Oct. 27, 2022, Lebanon signed a historic agreement with Israel demarcating their maritime border and respective exclusive economic zones (EEZs), ensuring the distribution of offshore gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean. The two neighboring countries, still technically in a state of war, reached an understanding after several months of indirect negotiations brokered by the United States.
According to some leaks in early November, the Israelis want to include in possible new negotiations with Lebanon the issue of the maritime border, gas exploration, and the export of Lebanese gas, with the possibility of integrating it with Israeli gas.
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