Hezbollah

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam wants US-brokered ceasefire to be consolidated and for Israel to retreat.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has called for an end to the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and the full enforcement of the ceasefire, as Israeli shelling and demolitions continue.

“We want the war to end and we want the ceasefire [with Israel] consolidated,” Salam said in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday.

The prime minister demanded a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory up to its internationally recognised border and the release of all Lebanese detainees.

As delegates gathered to listen to Salam, on the ground in Lebanon, Israeli forces carried out a large explosion near Taybeh and Deir Siryan, while an Israeli air strike targeted a valley between Froun and Ghandourieh, triggering a large fire.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Froun, said the reality on the ground is that the conflict is far from over.

“From the ground here in Froun, we can still see Israeli warplanes and drones flying at low altitudes in the skies above and Israeli artillery shelling is still causing uncontrollable fires. Lebanese civil defence and firefighters are not being allowed by the Israelis to reach these areas and put out the flames,” she said.

“More than 60 towns in southern Lebanon are still occupied by the Israeli army, where the Israelis are carrying out a systematic campaign of demolitions,” Khodr added.

Israeli forces are “blowing up people’s homes, despite the framework agreement in which there is supposed to be a ceasefire that they have signed with the Lebanese government,” she said.

Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon have killed at least 4,386 people and wounded 12,407 others since March 2 , when the current Hezbollah-Israel war started. Since then, Israeli forces have occupied up to 600sq km of Lebanese territory up to the Litani River.

A US-brokered framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel in June provides for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory and the deployment of the Lebanese army in areas vacated by Israeli forces.

Speaking at the UNGA, Salam said his government had entered into negotiations with Israel, mediated by the United States and President Donald Trump, “to end the war and restore Lebanon’s sovereignty”, adding that the success of any agreement is measured not by intentions but by fulfilment of commitments.

“What is required is to complete the translation of this agreement into practical steps within a clear timetable and with a verification mechanism that ensures the implementation of all its provisions,” he said.

He focused on state sovereignty, saying it “cannot be untouchable in one place and negotiable in another, nor can the rules of international law apply to some but not to others”.

Salam also pledged to oversee the disarmament of Hezbollah in exchange for Israel’s eventual full withdrawal, also saying “weapons must be exclusively in the hands of the state and that decisions on war and peace rest solely with its constitutional institutions”.

Stability in the Middle East can only come with respect for Palestinian rights, he said.

“There can be no lasting stability in Lebanon without lasting stability in our region, and there can be no stability in the region as long as this organisation [the UN] remains unable to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination, like all other peoples of the world,” Salam said. “No less and no more.”

DUBAI: Hezbollah must prioritize Lebanon’s interests over those of Iran for progress to be made on disarming the group and advancing negotiations with Israel, deputy speaker in the Lebanese Parliament, Elias Bou Saab, said on Wednesday, as negotiations remain frozen amid the wider US war on Iran.

Lebanon’s government cannot secure a lasting agreement with Israel without Hezbollah’s backing for the transfer of weapons to state control Bou Saab said at the Arab Media Summit in Dubai, in a session titled “Lebanon at a Crossroads.”

But a key aspect of moving negotiations further is getting on the same page with Hezbollah, said Bou Saab.

“If the Lebanese state does not have Hezbollah’s approval, it is negotiating over something that it cannot deliver.

“That’s why Hezbollah needs to be convinced that we need to reach a solution to the issue of handing over weapons and ensuring that weapons are exclusively in the hands of the Lebanese state,” he said.

Bou Saab emphasized the need to disarm Hezbollah and ensure that the Lebanese army is the only armed force in Lebanon.

But he said that disarmament was not enough.

“The issue is not simply about handing over weapons. There need to be guarantees, including the liberation of Lebanese territory and prisoners, and guarantees that Israel will not attack Lebanon,” he said.

“The negotiations are directly linked to what is happening between the US and Iran. We have to wait and see what happens between the US and Iran to know what will happen in Lebanon and when the war in Lebanon will end,” said Bou Saab.

The MP said Lebanon was, at this stage, trying to prevent trying a further escalation and expansion of the war.

The US has been sponsoring talks between Israel and Lebanon aimed at putting an end to hostilities, with Beirut seeking Israel’s phased withdrawal from the south.

In June, Israel and Lebanon agreed to a framework deal that involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon’s south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as “pilot zones.”

But elections in Israel and the US are putting the negotiations on hold, explained Bou Saab.

“Perhaps after the Israeli and American elections, we will enter a new phase, and that is when the serious discussions about Lebanon’s future will begin.”

He added: “I expect that after the elections perhaps during the period before Christmas, or extending into the period after Christmas will be the most serious period for discussions about Lebanon’s future and where we are heading.”

ZAWTAR AL GHARBIYEH: The US ambassador to Lebanon on Tuesday visited a southern village that recently came under the control of the Lebanese army as part of a framework agreement with Israel.

The US-backed June agreement states that the Israeli military will withdraw from areas of south Lebanon it occupied in parallel with the deployment of the Lebanese army, starting with “pilot zones”, under the condition that militant group Hezbollah disarms.

An AFP correspondent saw a convoy carrying the US envoy, Michel Issa, entering the village of Zawtar al-Gharbiya, where he visited a church, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA).

The news agency said an Israeli drone surveyed the area during the visit, reporting Israeli military vehicle movements in the neighbouring town.

Israeli troops remain deployed in what it calls a “security zone”, a stretch of Lebanese territory about 10 kilometres (six miles) deep along the border.

It recently blew up a strategic Hezbollah location at the Ali al-Taher ridge in the Nabatieh region, creating a blast so powerful that a 4.1 tremor was registered.

Fresh talks between Israel and Lebanon over the implementation of the framework agreement were due to be held this month, but were postponed to October.

A source from the Lebanese presidency told AFP that during the last round of talks in August, Israel refused to discuss new “pilot zones” without ensuring that the Lebanese army had full control of the first ones.

The Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to Washington are due to meet this week to discuss the implementation of the agreement.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun also visited Zawtar al-Gharbiya on Saturday, where his office said he inspected army units and observed nearby Israeli military positions.

Violence declined following the June framework agreement and a wider US-Iran deal, but Israel has pressed its attacks on Lebanon.

Hezbollah, which pulled Lebanon into the war in March with strikes on Israel, rejects the negotiations with Israel and refuses to disarm, but has not claimed any recent attacks.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 4,300 people since the hostilities began in March, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israeli attacks come a week after it said to have established operational control over the strategic ridge.

The Israeli military says it has destroyed Hezbollah’s underground infrastructure at a key site in southern Lebanon, with Israeli government officials adding that the operation consolidated its so-called security zone in the area.

In a joint statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Israeli forces would remain in the area to prevent the Iran-aligned Hezbollah militant group from re-establishing its presence and rebuilding its capabilities.

The Ali al-Taher ridge, about 15 km (10 miles) from the Israeli border, has become one of the most contested areas of the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Katz claimed last Friday that Israeli forces had driven Hezbollah fighters out of what he said was a network of tunnels ⁠⁠under the disputed highland.

Reuters reported that Hezbollah is believed to have built an underground command centre and weapons stores there in July, quoting unnamed Lebanese security sources.

Lebanon’s National News Agency said that the Israeli military carried out a powerful blast at the ridge, with tremors and the sound of the explosion felt across Nabatieh and surrounding areas in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has yet to respond to the recent Israeli attack.

The Israeli military said its forces had established “operational control” over the ridge, both above and below ground, before dismantling the infrastructure. The network extended for more than 2 km (just over 1 mile) and contained dozens of rockets, missiles and drones, as well as anti-tank missiles, mines and explosive devices, it said.

The military said a central command complex belonging to Hezbollah’s Badr unit was located within the underground infrastructure. The complex contained command centres, weapons storage rooms and living quarters that allowed fighters to remain underground for extended periods, it said.

Iran reportedly warned the United States last month that it would respond forcefully if Israeli attacks on the ridge continued.

Over the last weeks, Israeli strikes and ground operations around the Ali al-Taher ridge continued despite a ceasefire agreed in June, after Israel gained control of nearby Beaufort Castle and part of the higher ground overlooking much of southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

A US-brokered framework agreed after a June ceasefire — between Lebanon and Israel, without negotiating with Hezbollah — called for Israeli forces to gradually withdraw from southern Lebanon while Lebanese troops disarm Hezbollah.

The process has stalled, however, with Hezbollah refusing to give up its weapons and Israel saying it will not withdraw until the group disarms.

Since 2023, Israel has pushed into southern Lebanon and seized several strategic positions, occupying swathes of land, which it now increasingly says it needs to maintain a so-called buffer zone between Israel and Hezbollah positions in Lebanon.

KFAR RUMMAN, Lebanon: Hundreds of people in south Lebanon gathered on Tuesday to mourn two Hezbollah members and their family, among them a three-month-old infant, killed by an Israeli strike a day prior.

The two brothers’ coffins, draped in the Iran-backed group’s yellow flag, portraits of them in camouflage fatigues fixed to the front, led the procession through the village battered by repeated conflict over nearly three years.

Another 10 coffins were covered in Lebanese flags, indicating that the rest of the Farhat family killed when Monday’s strike levelled their home were civilians.

Israel has launched airstrikes and a ground invasion in south Lebanon during the Middle East war, which erupted with joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran and spread to Lebanon after Hezbollah targeted Israel in support of its backer.

The fighting in Lebanon had calmed since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding and a framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon were both agreed in June.

But Beirut still reports recurring Israeli strikes, which it says have killed more than 4,300 people in total since March, and Israeli forces continue to occupy what it calls a “security zone” in the south.

A separate strike on Kfar Rumman on Monday killed an 18-year-old rescuer with the Risala Association, linked to the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement, the organisation said, who was mourned alongside the Farhat family on Tuesday.

“We have 13 killed including grandfather and grandmother, husbands and wives, and their children including a three-months old infant,” deputy mayor Nureddine Nureddine told AFP from the funeral.

“Someone put an end to these crimes,” Nureddine said, adding that the strike that killed the Farhat family “occurred at night, while they were sleeping”.

“There was no military activity, nothing.”

An AFP correspondent saw people marching to the cemetery, waving Hezbollah flags as women dressed in black wept, holding pictures of the dead as an Israeli drone flew overhead.

“Death to America, death to Israel,” mourners yelled.

– ‘A shred of honour’ –

The Israeli military said on Monday that it had struck Hezbollah “infrastructure sites” across southern Lebanon after the launch of two explosive drones towards its troops, as well as “several terrorists” it said were transferring weapons.

“The claim that several uninvolved individuals were harmed as a result of the strikes is being reviewed,” it said, adding that the military “will continue to operate to remove threats while remaining committed to the ceasefire agreement”.

Since Friday, at least 28 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

Standing next to a picture of his own son, a Hezbollah member killed by Israel, Ghaleb Baalbaki slammed the Lebanese government for continuing direct talks with Israel.

“If they have even a shred of honour, the first thing they should do would be to stop the negotiations,” he said.

The lull in violence that began in June had allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced people to return home.

“Kfar Rumman was coming back to life, there were more than 1,400 people” in the town before the latest escalation, Nureddine said,

“Now, they can be counted on your fingers.”

BEIRUT: Since a ceasefire went into effect between Israel and Hezbollah more than two months ago, fighting has stopped in much of Lebanon, but not on a strategic hill overlooking parts of a main southern city.

In recent weeks, Ali Taher hill has been the scene of daily shelling and airstrikes by Israel’s military. Hezbollah, a militant group backed by Iran, has repeatedly attacked Israeli forces in the area with drones.

The United States, which is mediating talks between Lebanon and Israel, had wanted Hezbollah to hand over the hill to the Lebanese army as part of larger plan to disarm the militant group and dismantle its infrastructure. But Hezbollah has refused.

Lebanon and Israel reached a framework agreement in June stating Israel will withdraw from Lebanon as Hezbollah is disarmed. The militant group was not a party to the negotiations and has rejected calls to disarm in areas north of the Litani river, which is where Ali Taher is located.

A full-on battle over this hill near the city of Nabatiyeh could escalate fighting across the country, and unrest in Lebanon complicates efforts to resolve the war in Iran.

On Thursday night, Israel’s military announced it had taken “operational control” of Ali Taher and a network of tunnels beneath it that Hezbollah uses to shelter its fighters and weapons. It is unclear how far Israel’s control extends. Just before Israel’s announcement, its air force was still targeting the hill, according to Lebanese state media.

There has been no official statement from Hezbollah since Israel’s announcement.

US pushes Lebanon to pressure Hezbollah

Hezbollah firmly rejected a proposal from the Lebanese government to hand over Ali Taher to the country’s army. It fears Israel would then seize control of the hill from the Lebanese army and then demand the handover of more territory.

Israel had occupied Ali Taher for 18 years before it withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.

The hill has a strategic location overlooking several villages as well as main roads leading to Nabatiyeh. Losing full control of it would disrupt Hezbollah’s presence and supply lines in the area.

The Israeli military says the site is also important to Hezbollah because of tunnels it built there, with funding from Iran.

Israel said in its statement Thursday that the hill housed underground command centers, weapons storage rooms, generators, living quarters, showers and a kitchen. Israel said it cleared Ali Taher of Hezbollah fighters and was working to “neutralize underground infrastructure sites.”

Hezbollah legislator Ihab Hamadeh questioned why the Israeli military was still attacking the hill if it was really in control of the area, according to the Arabic-language version of Russia’s state-funded news outlet Sputnik. An Associated Press photographer who visited the nearby village of Kfar Rumman on Friday saw no sign of Israeli military presence on the hill.

The hill, topped with a shrine to a Muslim scholar, sits north of the Litani river, which has become the de facto boundary of the area captured by Israel since its latest war with Hezbollah began in early March.

Fighting in the area has heated up in recent weeks

Israel has been conducting military operations around Ali Taher since July, said Nasser Khdour, a Middle East researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED, a US-based group that tracks conflicts around the world.

Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qamati told a Lebanese podcaster in late August that the group’s fighters were repelling attempts by Israeli troops to take Ali Taher. But he, and others, downplayed the significance of the site should Israel take it.

“Ali Taher is important, but if it is lost it does not mean the end of Hezbollah,” Qamati said.

In mid-August, Israel carried out a series of airstrikes on southern Lebanon that it described as retaliation for a Hezbollah drone attack on Ali Taher that seriously wounded three soldiers. The Israeli strikes, which killed 11 people, including women and children, were the deadliest since the US-brokered ceasefire went into effect in late June.

On Aug. 27, Israel carried out a series of airstrikes, killing one person and wounding six, after the military said Hezbollah fired two explosive drones at Israeli troops in the area. Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for any of the attacks.

Lebanon says Israel is hindering its army

Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri told an Arab TV station in late August that the Lebanese army was ready to take over Ali Taher.

He accused Israel of blocking the army due to its own political considerations ahead of Israeli national elections on Oct. 27.

“The problem is not in the Lebanese army’s readiness but in Israel’s stance,” he said.

Lebanese and Israeli officials are set to meet for negotiations in Rome later this month. Meanwhile, Hezbollah, which has always refused to speak directly to the US, appears to be changing its policy after the major setbacks it has suffered during its wars with Israel since 2024.

A Lebanese official told The Associated Press that indirect contacts are going on between the US and Hezbollah, but refused to give any details. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, said recently that Washington is ready to speak with Hezbollah if the group agrees to disarm.

Still, Hezbollah is not likely to take any move forward regarding talks with the US without a green light from its main backer, Iran. While talks with the US over their war have stalled, Iran has sought guarantees that Israel will halt its attacks on Hezbollah as part of any permanent deal.

Capture of Ali Taher could lead Israel to other Hezbollah strongholds

The capture of Ali Taher would open the way to Nabatiyeh and also lead to the nearby Apple Province and Rihan Mountain, where Hezbollah has been building up its presence since the late 1990s.

Israeli leaders have repeatedly pledged to leave troops in Lebanon and threatened to escalate military pressure until Hezbollah disarms.

“Israeli control of the area is an operational and military setback for Hezbollah,” said Khdour of ACLED. He said clearing these sites helps Israel protect towns in the northern part of its country, and increases pressure on Hezbollah.

“This will strengthen Israel’s position in any future negotiations over its withdrawal,” said Khdour.

ARAB SALIM: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Washington and the international community to help stop Israeli attacks, which killed at least seven people on Sunday despite a truce and a framework deal aimed at halting the violence.

Israel said it had targeted Hezbollah operatives and sites in response to a drone attack a day earlier by the Iran-backed group on its troops in the vicinity of a strategic south Lebanon ridge.

It reported no casualties but accused Hezbollah of a “blatant violation.”

Israel this week said it had captured the Nabatieh-area Ali Al-Taher ridge, which it considers part of its self-declared “security zone” in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah, which has not claimed any attacks for weeks, has not commented on Israel’s declaration of control over the site.

Aoun said Sunday’s strikes, which damaged government premises and destroyed an out-of-service hospital, were “a dangerous escalation… reaching Lebanese state institutions” and health facilities.

He called on the international community — particularly the United States, which has sponsored direct Israel-Lebanon talks and a framework agreement between the sides in June — “to urgently act to stop these violations.”

Lebanon’s health ministry said two people were killed in strikes on south Lebanon’s Nabatieh Al-Fawqa, with two women also killed in nearby Arab Salim.

It said 20 other people including several women and three children were wounded there, as well as in the city of Nabatieh and town of Kfar Rumman.

The ministry later reported that a strike on a parking lot near Nabatieh killed three more people.

Hospital hit

The ministry said one of the strikes in Nabatieh Al-Fawqa “totally destroyed” the out-of-service Ghandour hospital, decrying “another grave violation of international humanitarian law.”

Israel’s army said it targeted Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure, including “weapons storage facilities and terrorist structures,” as well as “a Hezbollah command center that had been established inside a building previously used as a hospital.”

It had earlier issued its first evacuation notice in Lebanon in a month, warning residents near a building it called a Hezbollah facility in Arab Salim to leave ahead of an attack on the site.

It did not issue warnings for other areas where strikes were reported.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said that after the Israeli warning for Arab Salim, “enemy warplanes launched a strike on another house, destroying it” and killing the two women.

It said the Israeli military subsequently carried out a strike on the building threatened in the evacuation warning.

At the scene of the second strike, an AFP correspondent saw the ruins of a devastated villa, with large decorative columns laying on their side next to stairs littered with rubble.

Haidar Haidar, the brother of the building’s owner, told AFP that nobody had been living inside.

At the other site in Arab Salim where the two women were killed, a mattress, furniture and other items including a Hezbollah flag were strewn among the rubble, while neighboring buildings were also damaged.

‘Take action’

The NNA also reported a strike on a motorcycle in the Nabatieh area, and said that another in the city itself targeted a historical building and damaged offices belonging to finance and agriculture authorities.

An AFP correspondent there saw rubble and extensive damage to adjacent buildings, shops and vehicles, as heavy machinery cleared the road. Dust and debris covered chairs and desks in the regional ministry offices.

Nabatieh Mayor Abbas Fakhreddine said “the Lebanese government must take action… and at the least defend its institutions,” adding that it was the second time the official buildings had been damaged by strikes.

Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war in March after Hezbollah attacked Israel in support of its backer Iran.

Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion of Lebanon that Beirut says have killed more than 4,300 people.

Violence has decreased since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding on the broader regional conflict in June and the Israel-Lebanon framework agreement later that month.

Israeli forces are operating inside a self-declared “security zone” around 10 kilometers (six miles) deep inside Lebanon along the border.