Israel strikes Lebanon as deadline for Hezbollah disarmament plan looms

Lebanon's Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri 'open to discussing the fate of those weapons'

The Israeli army carried out air strikes on south Lebanon on Sunday in what it said were sites run by Hezbollah.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported intense strikes in the wooded area of Ali Al Taher, where fires were later declared, and in Al Debsha, where serious damage was recorded.

According to NNA, jets fired "a large number of missiles", with AFP images showing thick columns of smoke rising into the sky.

The Israeli army said it "struck military infrastructure, including underground infrastructure, at a Hezbollah site in which military activity was identified, in the area of the Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon".

"The existence of the site and the activity within it constitute a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon."

After the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel engaged in more than a year of hostilities that culminated in two months of full-blown war last year.

Under a ceasefire that sought to end the violence, Lebanon's army has been deployed to the south, while Hezbollah infrastructure is being dismantled with the support of UN peacekeepers.

Israel, however, has kept up its strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon despite the truce reached in November and has vowed to continue attacking until the militant group has been disarmed.

Under US pressure, Beirut has ordered the Lebanese army to draw up a plan to take Hezbollah's weapons by the end of the year but the group has vowed to resist.

Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, said on Sunday: "We are open to discussing the fate of weapons ... within the framework of a calm, consensual dialogue ... in a way that leads to formulating a national security strategy that protects Lebanon, liberates its land and safeguards its internationally recognized borders."

Not under the pressure of threats, he said, or by "overturning the ceasefire agreement, which constitutes an executive framework for Resolution 1701".

Mr Berri criticised the government's moves, which are based on a US proposal.

"What is proposed in the American paper goes beyond the principle of [a state] weapons monopoly and rather appears as an alternative to the November ceasefire agreement," he said.

Lebanon's ministers are set to meet again on Friday after receiving the army's plan.

Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem previously said the group would not give up its weapons, stressing that disarming Hezbollah would be like “taking its soul out”.

The Lebanese army was given until the end of this month to unveil its plan for implementing the government’s decision to disarm the group.