Israel attacks Lebanon

US president says Gaza ceasefire ‘working out very well’ despite deadly Israeli attacks and severe aid restrictions.

Video shows Israeli drones launching intense airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday. At least one person was killed in the town of Toura. Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah sites despite a ceasefire agreed to with the group last year.

Israeli forces have carried out air strikes on the areas of Mahmoudiyeh and Jarmak, in southern Lebanon. The strikes are the latest in near-daily Israeli violations of the US-brokered ceasefire involving Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that began in November.

The October 13, 2023, attack in southern Lebanon killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six other reporters.

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Lebanon to continue its pursuit of justice over a deadly Israeli strike two years ago that killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six other reporters.

The rights group said in a statement on Monday that it welcomed a move by Lebanon’s Ministry of Justice to investigate legal options to press charges against Israel for crimes against journalists.

Reporters Without Borders also welcomed that “Lebanon is finally taking action” as Israel is accused of targeting a large number of journalists during its military aggression in Gaza and Lebanon.

Issam Abdallah, a videographer for the Reuters news agency, was killed in the October 13, 2023, attack by an Israeli tank on southern Lebanon near the Israeli border. Two Al Jazeera reporters were among those injured.

HRW said Lebanon’s announcement last week that it was looking at legal options to pursue the matter presented a “fresh opportunity to achieve justice for the victims”.

Ramzi Kaiss, the NGO’s Lebanon researcher, said the country’s action to hold Israel accountable is overdue.

“Israel’s apparently deliberate killing of Issam Abdallah should have served as a crystal clear message for Lebanon’s government that impunity for war crimes begets more war crimes,” he said.

“Since Issam’s killing, scores of other civilians in Lebanon have been killed in apparently deliberate or indiscriminate attacks that violate the laws of war and amount to war crimes,” Kaiss asserted.

‘War crime’

The October 2023 attack wounded Al Jazeera cameraman Elie Brakhia and reporter Carmen Joukhadar, Reuters journalists Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, and the AFP news agency’s Christina Assi and Dylan Collins.

Assi was seriously wounded and had to have her right leg amputated.

HRW said an investigation by the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had found that an Israeli Merkava tank had fired two 120mm rounds at the group of clearly identifiable journalists.

The journalists were removed from the hostilities and had been stationary for more than an hour when they came under fire, the report said. No exchange of fire had been recorded across the border for more than 40 minutes before the attack.

The NGO said it had found no evidence of a military target near the journalists’ location and, because the incident appeared to be a deliberate attack on civilians, it constituted a war crime.

‘Premeditated, targeted attack’

Morris Tidball-Binz, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said on Friday that the attack was “a premeditated, targeted and double-tapped attack from the Israeli forces, a clear violation, in my opinion, of [international humanitarian law], a war crime”.

Reporters Without Borders urged Beirut to refer the case to the International Criminal Court, saying on Friday: “Lebanon is finally taking action against impunity for the crime.”

In February, the Committee to Protect Journalists said a record 124 journalists had been killed in 2024 and Israel was responsible for more than two-thirds of those deaths.

A year on from Israel’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, reports say Hezbollah, the Lebanese group he led, is regrouping.

Analysts believe that while a weakened Hezbollah can no longer pose a significant threat to Israel, it can still create chaos and challenge opponents domestically as it tries to find a political footing to preserve its clout.

Long viewed as the strongest nonstate armed actor in the region, Hezbollah found its star waning in the past year, culminating in an international and domestic push for it to disarm entirely.

Handled recklessly, analysts believe, pressures to disarm the group could lead it to lash out and create internal strife that could outweigh international and regional pushes.

Hezbollah’s rhetoric remains defiant, and it has promised to reject Lebanese government efforts to disarm it – as its current leader, Naim Qassem, reiterated on Saturday to a crowd of thousands of people who had gathered at Nasrallah’s tomb to commemorate his assassination.

“We will never abandon our weapons, nor will we relinquish them,” he said to the crowd, adding that Hezbollah would continue to “confront any project that serves Israel”.

No action yet

Hezbollah started trading attacks with Israel on October 8, 2023, the day after the latter launched its war on Gaza. This continued until September 2024 when an Israeli military intensification and subsequent invasion killed about 4,000 people in Lebanon, injured thousands more and displaced hundreds of thousands.

By the time a ceasefire was announced on November 27, much of Hezbollah’s senior military leadership, including Nasrallah, the group’s secretary-general, had been killed by Israel.

The terms of the ceasefire were poorly defined, according to diplomatic sources with knowledge of the agreement, but the public understanding was that both sides would cease attacks, Hezbollah would disarm in southern Lebanon and Israel would withdraw its forces from the south. But soon after, Israel and the United States argued that Hezbollah must disarm entirely.

Seeing it weakened, Hezbollah’s domestic and regional opponents began calling for the group to give up its weapons. Sensing the changing regional winds, many of Hezbollah’s domestic allies jumped ship and voiced support for full disarmament.

The Lebanese government, under pressure from the US and Israel, announced on September 5 that the Lebanese armed forces have been tasked with forming a plan to disarm Hezbollah.

In the meantime, Israel has continually violated the ceasefire, bombing southern Lebanon. UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in the south, said Israel is committing “continuous violations of this [ceasefire] arrangement, including air and drone strikes on Lebanese territory”.

Despite media speculation that Hezbollah is regrouping in southern Lebanon, particularly in anti-Hezbollah media outlets, it has only claimed one attack since the ceasefire was announced in November.

Analysts believe Hezbollah is no longer in a position to threaten Israel, meaning that any decision by the latter to expand attacks in Lebanon would be for considerations other than Hezbollah’s current capabilities.

Hezbollah and its supporters argue that Israel’s threats and continued violations as well as its continued presence occupying five points on Lebanese territory justify the need for resistance.

“The continued existence of a real threat justifies the maintenance of deterrence and defence capabilities because deterrence is not a one-time event but rather a cumulative process that requires a stable and integrated power structure within a broader political context,” Ali Haidar, a columnist with the pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar, wrote recently.

Al Jazeera reached out to Hezbollah for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

What does ‘regrouping’ mean?

“No military or political military force [will not] regroup after suffering a major defeat as [Hezbollah] did last year,” Michael Young, a Lebanese analyst and writer, said.

“But are they in a position to mount rockets and bomb northern Israel along the border? No. Are they in a position to fire missiles at towns and cities? No.

“So what does [regrouping] mean?”

Lebanese political scientist Imad Salamey told Al Jazeera: “Hezbollah is significantly degraded – leadership attrition, [communications] penetrations and blows to command and control have been real. They will try to recover, but the plausible path is a smaller, cheaper, more agile Hezbollah.

“Israeli assessments themselves note both the damage done and Hezbollah’s attempts to regenerate via smuggling/self-production under intense intelligence pressure, suggesting any rebound will be partial and tactical rather than structural in the near term,” Salamey added.

In early December, the regime of Hezbollah ally Bashar al-Assad was toppled in Syria, another blow to the group, as it cut off a direct land route for weapons and financing to reach the group from Iran.

In the meantime, however, analysts said Hezbollah has been trying to use its remaining leverage through diplomacy, even sending signals to longtime foes like Saudi Arabia.

“We assure you that the arms of the resistance are pointed at the Israeli enemy, not Lebanon, Saudi Arabia or any other place or entity in the world,” Qassem said in a speech on September 19.

The message to Saudi Arabia, which has previously funded Hezbollah’s opponents in Lebanon, is part of a shift in the group’s strategy, analysts said.

“There’s a hint that they feel they can deal with things politically,” Young said. “They may feel they don’t need to resort to force or weapons if they can get more out of the system.”

It is also a reflection of the new political reality in Lebanon and the region, where Israel and the US have ascended in power and Iran, Hezbollah’s close ally, has faltered.

“Hezbollah is starting to realise that it is entrapped,” Lebanese political analyst Karim Emile Bitar told Al Jazeera.

Before the war, Hezbollah had the ability to make or break governments. But President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam were elected in early 2025 despite neither being Hezbollah’s preferred candidate.

Still, Hezbollah was either unwilling or unable to disrupt the formation of Salam’s government. Analysts said the group is in dire need of foreign aid that the government could secure to help rebuild its constituencies damaged by Israeli attacks.

But that money has yet to arrive as there is regional and domestic debate over whether the government should receive reconstruction funds before Hezbollah’s disarmament and other banking or political reforms.

Analysts and diplomats told Al Jazeera Hezbollah is still capable of raising tensions but has avoided fanning any flames due to the Lebanese state’s rising support as well as the fatigue and trauma Hezbollah members and supporters have due to last year’s war and continuing Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Still, on Thursday, Hezbollah supporters flocked to Beirut’s seaside in remembrance of Nasrallah. Supporters projected their late leader’s image onto the Raouche Rocks, defying orders from the prime minister’s office that banned the act.

The event was seen as an expression of love for Nasrallah by his supporters and a provocation by Hezbollah’s opponents. But the group, which has threatened violence to get its way in the past, has largely avoided provocations since the war, apart from occasional attempts to block roads that were quickly reopened by the Lebanese military.

If Hezbollah is pursuing military regrouping, a senior Western diplomat with knowledge of the issue said, it would be more likely in the Bekaa Valley than in the south, where the ceasefire mechanism had been largely effective at supervising Hezbollah’s withdrawal.

The group, however, does appear to be altering its political strategy, Young said, adding that Hezbollah, via instructions from Iran, may eventually be looking for certain compromises.

He pointed out proposals by parliamentarians Ali Hassan Khalil, a Hezbollah ally, and Ali Fayyad, a Hezbollah MP, in their subcommittees, where they spoke about implementing the 1989 Ta’ef Accord, an agreement that ended the civil war, declared all militias should give up their arms and Lebanon should transition to a nonsectarian system of power.

“Their implicit point is that ‘If we implement Ta’ef in its entirety, then that can give us a greater role with better representation, and then we can talk about weapons,’” Young said.

‘Time for Hezbollah to go’?

Amid the intensifying pressure to disarm Hezbollah, analysts and diplomats fear that if pressed too hard, the group could lash out.

The US has announced a $14.2m aid package for the Lebanese military to help it disarm Hezbollah, and visits by US officials – including Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, deputy special envoy Morgan Ortagus and special envoy Tom Barrack – have intensified pressure on Lebanon.

“It’s time for Hezbollah to go,” Graham said during his visit in late August.

But Lebanon’s military has rejected setting a strict timetable for Hezbollah’s disarmament over fears the tense situation in Lebanon could descend into violence.

And news of the US aid has been received poorly in parts of Lebanon, where it is seen as part of a US effort to use Lebanon’s military to execute Israeli interests.

“[The Lebanese army] will never serve as a border guard for Israel. Its weapons are not weapons of discord, and its mission is sacred: to protect Lebanon and the Lebanese people,” Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is a Hezbollah ally, said in a statement on Tuesday.

The fears of diplomats and analysts are that a confrontation between the army and Hezbollah could lead to internal strife and a potential fracturing of the army along confessional lines – similar to what happened in the early days of the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War.

“[Disarming Hezbollah by force] is the worst possible option, but obviously, this is how the Americans are increasingly pressuring the Lebanese government to resolve this,” Young told Al Jazeera.

“The Lebanese army is not willing to resolve it through the use of force because they don’t want to be pushed into conflict with Hezbollah.”

Israel says Hezbollah member killed in strike, but Lebanon says attack is a ‘crime against civilians’.

An Israeli drone strike has killed five people, including three children, in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon’s Health Ministry has said, as Israel continues to target its neighbour despite a US-brokered truce that took effect in November.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported on Sunday that the strike targeted a motorcycle and a vehicle, and wounded two other people.

Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri said that the three children – named as Celine, Hadi, and Aseel – and their father were United States citizens. The mother of the children was injured in the attack.

Israel said that the strike had killed a member of the Hezbollah group, but admitted that civilians also had been killed.

Israel has frequently hit what it alleges are Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, claiming to be preventing the Iran-backed Lebanese group from rebuilding its military power following its war against Israel, which killed most of its senior leadership, including its longtime chief, Hassan Nasrallah.

‘New massacre’

“Is it Lebanese childhood that poses an existential threat to the Israeli entity?” Berri asked, according to NNA. “Or is it the behaviour of this entity, in killing without deterrence or accountability, that constitutes a real threat to international peace and security?”

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel of committing “a new massacre”.

“What happened is a blatant crime against civilians and a message of intimidation targeting our people returning to their villages in the south,” Salam, who previously served as the president of the International Court of Justice, said.

“The international community must condemn Israel in the strongest terms for its repeated violations of international resolutions and international law.”

Labour Minister Mohamad Haidar also claimed Israel was deliberately targeting the Lebanese population that had returned to the south after more than a year of conflict sparked by Israel’s war on Gaza.

“This plan will not succeed, because the will of the people of the south is stronger than the criminal machine,” Haidar said.

The US and Saudi Arabia, along with Hezbollah’s opponents in Lebanon, have been pressuring the Shia Muslim group to give up arms. Lebanon’s army earlier this month presented a plan to the government’s cabinet to disarm Hezbollah, saying the military will begin executing it.

Hezbollah is adamant it will hold onto its weapons and insists it would be a mistake to disarm while Israel continues to strike Lebanon and occupy swaths of territory in the south.

Mass expulsion continues from Gaza’s largest urban centre as hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians endure incessant Israeli bombardment.

Israel has attacked a school in the Al Shati refugee camp that was a makeshift shelter for displaced Palestinians in Gaza City.

António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, has called Israel’s ‘targeted strike’ on Hamas officials in Doha a ‘flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar.’

Israel claims it has struck Hezbollah targets, although the Lebanese group has not commented.

At least five people have been killed and five others wounded after Israeli warplanes struck eastern Lebanon in the latest violation of the ceasefire agreement signed last November, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The attacks on Monday hit the Bekaa and Hermel districts, with state media saying at least eight air raids were carried out. According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, seven bombs fell on the outskirts of Hermel, while another strike targeted the nearby town of Labweh.

Israel’s military claimed the raids hit weapons depots and military facilities used by Hezbollah, though the claims could not be independently confirmed. Hezbollah has not yet commented.

Israel has continued launching near-daily assaults on Lebanese territory, particularly in the south, while maintaining an occupation at five border outposts despite the truce requiring a full withdrawal earlier this year.

The conflict erupted on October 8, 2023, when Israel opened a military offensive in Lebanon. By the time the ceasefire was reached in November the following year, more than 4,000 people had been killed and almost 17,000 wounded.

The fragile truce is under further strain as Lebanon grapples with a contentious plan pushed by the United States and Israel to disarm Hezbollah.

Earlier this month, Lebanon’s army presented a proposal to the cabinet outlining steps to begin dismantling the group’s arsenal. Information Minister Paul Morcos said the government welcomed the move, but stopped short of confirming cabinet approval.

The plan prompted a walkout by five Shia ministers, including representatives of Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal Movement, who insist the group will not disarm while Israel continues air strikes and occupation in the south.

The US and Hezbollah’s political rivals in Lebanon have increased pressure on the group to surrender its weapons. Hezbollah has resisted, warning that even raising the issue while Israeli attacks persist would be a “serious misstep”.

Last week, Israeli strikes killed four people in Lebanon, underlining the escalating tension despite the ceasefire. Israel was also slammed for dropping grenades close to peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) last week.

Five Shia ministers walk out of cabinet debate as Hezbollah remains adamant it will hold onto its weapons.

Lebanon’s army has presented a plan to the government’s cabinet to disarm Hezbollah, saying the military will begin executing it, as some ministers staged a walkout before the session began.

On Friday, Lebanon’s cabinet met for three hours, which included the plan’s presentation by army commander Rodolphe Haykal. The plan did not set a timeframe for implementation and cautioned that the army had limited capabilities.

Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos told reporters after the session that the government welcomed the plan, but stopped short of saying the cabinet had formally passed it.

He said the army would begin implementing the plan according to its logistical, material and personnel capabilities, which might require “additional time [and] additional effort”.

Morcos said the plan’s details would remain secret.

A national divide over Hezbollah’s disarmament has taken centre stage in Lebanon since last year’s devastating war with Israel, which upended a power balance long dominated by Hezbollah.

Five Shia ministers, including those from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal Movement, walked out of the cabinet meeting, with the Lebanese armed group adamant it will hold onto its weapons.

The walkout happened as Lebanon’s army chief Haykal entered the meeting to present a plan for disarming the group, local media reported.

Hezbollah and Amal ministers have now walked out of cabinet meetings three times over the disarmament issue.

Hezbollah-aligned Labor Minister Mohammad Haidar told local media before the cabinet’s session had concluded that any decision taken in the absence of Shia ministers would be null and void, as it would be considered in contravention of Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem last month raised the spectre of civil war, warning the government against trying to confront the group and saying street protests were possible.

Military and political analyst Elijah Magnier says it is not possible for the Lebanese army to confront Hezbollah, adding that it did not “have the appetite to start a civil war”.

“It [also] doesn’t want a partition in the army, because the Shia members within the army would not side by the Lebanese army if it attacks Shia strongholds,” he told Al Jazeera.

Calls grow to disarm

The United States and Saudi Arabia, along with Hezbollah’s primarily Christian and Sunni opponents in Lebanon, have ramped up calls for the group to give up arms.

US Senators Jim Risch and Jeanne Shaheen, members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a joint statement in support of Hezbollah’s disarmament on Friday.

“Lebanon deserves a free, prosperous, and secure future. That will only be possible if Lebanon is freed from the influence of Hezbollah and the Iranian regime,” the senators said.

“We recognize that Lebanon’s government has made important progress in the past year, and we applaud the recent decision by Lebanon’s Council of Ministers to approve disarming militias in Lebanon. This commitment must be carried out to its full conclusion, including approving the Lebanese Armed Forces’ disarmament plan for Hezbollah.”

The bipartisan statement underscores growing pressure from Washington on Beirut to curb Hezbollah’s influence, a longstanding demand of both the US and international partners.

However, Hezbollah has pushed back, saying it would be a serious misstep to even discuss disarmament while Israel continues its air strikes on Lebanon and occupies swathes of territory in the south. Four people were killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday.

Israeli forces have continued to carry out air attacks across Lebanon in near-daily violations of the November truce, causing deaths and injuries among civilians, including Syrian refugees, and destruction of properties and infrastructure.

The United Nations Security Council voted on Thursday to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, until the end of 2026 and then to begin an “orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal” over the course of 2027.

The winding down of UNIFIL has been pushed heavily by Israel and the United States, who accuse the group of providing political cover for Hezbollah since the 2006 war and failing to work to disarm Hezbollah, despite that not being the UN body’s stated mission.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to occupy at least five points on Lebanese territory following its invasion of south Lebanon last October. A ceasefire agreement reached in November stipulated that Israeli troops should withdraw from south Lebanon, but that has not yet happened.

So what does the end of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mean for the border area between Lebanon and Israel? Here’s what you need to know.

What happens now?

UNIFIL will stay in south Lebanon until December 31, 2026.

After that, it will have a year to withdraw its troops and hand over control of the area to the Lebanese Army.

The development seems to be in Israel’s favour, considering Israel’s disproportionate advantage in military power, technology, and US support. Israel regularly hits Lebanon with military attacks, and even before October 2023, when Hezbollah entered the war with Israel, Israel’s air force regularly violated Lebanon’s airspace with surveillance flyovers.

With UNIFIL gone, there will be no international body to monitor these violations.

In a statement in advance of the vote, UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti questioned how UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted at the end of the 2006 war to stop hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah,  could be implemented with Israeli forces still in Lebanon.

“The commitment of the Lebanese government is there, but how can they be deployed everywhere in the south if the [Israeli military] are still present in the south?” he asked.

“So these are the things that are very difficult to comprehend.”

What is UNIFIL?

Founded in 1978, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops after Israel invaded southern Lebanon earlier that year. Israel would reinvade in 1982 and occupy south Lebanon until 2000, when Israeli forces were expelled by Hezbollah.

UNIFIL is a peacekeeping mission of more than 10,000 peacekeepers from 47 countries, with the highest number of them coming from Indonesia and Italy.

It monitors the entire border region and reports violations of UN Resolution 1701.

Its headquarters are in Naqoura, a coastal town that Israel has focused its attacks on. Al Jazeera found earlier this year that Israel destroyed most of the town after the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in November 2024, not during fighting.

UNIFIL’s operations take place across 1,060sq km (409 square miles) of the south, where it has 50 positions on Lebanese territory.

Can UNIFIL use force?

Only in self-defence or to protect civilians under attack.

As a peacekeeping force, UNIFIL does not typically fire on either Israel or Hezbollah.

In recent cases where its vehicles have been attacked, UNIFIL used nonlethal force to defend itself.

How do the Israelis feel about UNIFIL?

They’re not fans.

Israel has attacked UNIFIL peacekeepers in the past, and during the war last year, UNIFIL accused Israel of deliberate and direct attacks on its peacekeepers.

Unlike in Gaza, where the only voices to report on Israeli attacks or killings of civilians are Palestinian voices, UNIFIL is a body with an international mandate and legitimacy that reports on Israeli attacks and violations in southern Lebanon.

For its part, the US sees UNIFIL as a waste of money that doesn’t directly confront Hezbollah’s influence in south Lebanon.

Under President Donald Trump, the US has increasingly adopted Israel’s position on UNIFIL.

“This will be the last time the United States will support an extension of UNIFIL,” said Dorothy Shea, acting US ambassador to the UN. “The United States notes that the first ‘i’ in UNIFIL stands for ‘interim’. The time has come for UNIFIL’s mission to end.”

What’s wrong with Hezbollah?

Israel and the US view Hezbollah as a “terrorist” organisation.

Hezbollah was formed in the 1980s as a response to Israel’s occupation of Lebanon and eventually drove the occupiers out of south Lebanon. The two parties fought a war to a stalemate in 2006, though most of the casualties and destruction were incurred by Lebanon.

Between 2006 and last year, Israel viewed Hezbollah as a primary threat, and its weapons as a deterrence to military action. Since November’s ceasefire, Israel’s military has attacked southern Lebanon, and occasionally struck closer to Beirut, without restraint, despite an agreement that hostilities would cease.

Israel claims it is attacking Hezbollah targets, though civilians were regularly killed during the war last year and continue to die in Israeli strikes.

What about the Lebanese?

The current Lebanese government supported UNIFIL’s renewal.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed the vote to renew UNIFIL’s mandate, saying it “reiterates the call for Israel to withdraw its forces from the five sites it continues to occupy, and affirms the necessity of extending state authority over all its territory”.

But the Lebanese government aside, there is a wider spectrum of views on UNIFIL in south Lebanon.

While some Lebanese locals support the peacekeepers’ presence, many have been vocally critical of them.

In May, civilians wielding axes and rods attacked a UN vehicle in south Lebanon. Many southerners who cannot return to their homes in south Lebanon, either because their villages have been razed to the ground by Israel or because there is still a threat of Israeli attacks, have taken out their frustration against UNIFIL troops. Others reportedly view them with suspicion.

Viral videos have shown confrontations between Lebanese civilians and UNIFIL troops. In one, a local smacks a Finnish UNIFIL peacekeeper across the face after an argument.

Outrage in Lebanon after the US envoy calls journalists “animalistic”.

Tom Barrack’s comments come at a time when the US president has stepped up his attacks on media he dislikes.

So, what’s behind this hostility towards journalists within the Trump administration? And are there wider implications beyond the US?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Rami Khouri – Distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut

Jodie Ginsberg – CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists

Rick Perlstein – Journalist and historian, specialising in the roots and rise of US conservatism

Lebanese army says two other personnel wounded after crashed Israeli drone explodes during inspection in Naqoura area.

The Lebanese military says two soldiers have been killed and two wounded as they investigated an Israeli drone crash in southern Lebanon.

The army said the downed Israeli drone exploded on Thursday during an inspection at the crash site in the Naqoura area, not far from Lebanon’s border with Israel.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun offered condolences to the soldiers who were killed and injured, stressing that the military “is paying, in blood, the price of preserving stability in the south” of the country.

The deadly incident came as Israel has been carrying out near-daily attacks on Lebanon despite a ceasefire reached with Hezbollah in November.

It also coincides with a United Nations Security Council vote to wind down a UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, which has for decades been tasked with maintaining a buffer between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces.

The mandate for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was extended through the end of 2026, but after that, the UN will carry out an “orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal” over the following year.

The resolution aims to make Lebanon’s military “the sole provider of security” in southern Lebanon, a goal complicated by Israel’s continued presence in the country. Both Israel and its top ally, the United States, have been pushing to end the UNIFIL mission.

“The process of withdrawing its 10,800 military and civilian personnel and equipment would start immediately in consultation with the Lebanese government, to be completed within a year,” Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr explained.

UN Security Council voted unanimously to terminate the UN peacekeeping force in southern #Lebanon at the end of 2026 after nearly five decades, bowing to demands from US and ally Israel. The resolution would terminate UNIFIL’s mandate and halt its operations at the end of 2026.…

— Zeina Khodr (@ZeinakhodrAljaz) August 28, 2025

The US has also been pressuring Lebanon’s government to agree to a plan to disarm Hezbollah – something the Lebanese group has rejected, stressing that such a move will only reward Israel.

On a visit to Beirut on Tuesday, US envoy Tom Barrack said Lebanon had agreed to present a plan aimed at persuading Hezbollah to disarm while Israel would submit a corresponding framework for its military withdrawal from the country.

Barrack said the plan, which is expected to be presented on Sunday, will not involve military coercion but focus on efforts to encourage Hezbollah to surrender its weapons.

A day earlier, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said the Lebanese government must first ensure Israel complies with the ceasefire before talks on a national defence strategy could take place.

“If you truly want sovereignty, then stop the aggression. We will not abandon the weapons that honour us nor the weapons that protect us from our enemy,” Qassem said.

In Britain, citizens protesting against the war in Gaza are being arrested and detained under “terrorism” laws. Activists and legal experts warn that “public safety” is being used as a pretext to silence dissent, curb free speech and criminalise legitimate political activism.

Presenter: Stefanie Dekker

Guests:
Clare Hinchcliffe – mother of imprisoned activist
Laura O’Brien – head of protest team
Matt Kennard – investigative journalist and author

America First was the slogan Donald Trump championed during his re-election campaign as he promised to put the interests of Americans above those of foreign governments, immigrants and large corporations. However, the United States president has made several policy decisions that have divided his electoral base. The two guests in this episode of The Stream voted for Trump in the 2024 election but now find themselves on the opposite side of several issues: economic policy, foreign military spending and the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Presenter: Stefanie Dekker

Guests:
Ethan Levins – Social media journalist
Erol Morkoc – Spokesman, Republicans Overseas UK

PM’s office says the weapons transfer to the Lebanese army marks the start of a wider disarmament campaign.

Lebanon has launched a plan to disarm Palestinian groups in its refugee camps, beginning with the handover of weapons from Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut.

The prime minister’s office announced on Thursday that the weapons transfer to the Lebanese army marks the start of a wider disarmament campaign. More handovers are expected in the coming weeks across Burj al-Barajneh and other camps nationwide.

A Fatah official told the Reuters news agency the arms handed over so far were only illegal weapons that had entered the camp within the previous day. Television footage showed military vehicles inside the camp, though Reuters could not verify what type of weapons were being surrendered.

The initiative follows Lebanon’s commitment under a US-backed truce between Israel and Hezbollah in November, which restricted weapons to six state security forces. Since the November 27, 2024, ceasefire agreement, Israel has continued attacking Lebanon, often on a weekly basis.

The government has tasked the army with producing a strategy by the end of the year to consolidate all arms under state authority.

According to the prime minister’s office, the decision to disarm Palestinian factions was reached in a May meeting between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Both leaders affirmed Lebanon’s sovereignty and insisted that only the state should hold arms. Lebanese and Palestinian officials later agreed on a timeline and mechanism for the handovers.

For decades, Palestinian groups have maintained control inside Lebanon’s 12 refugee camps, which largely operate outside state jurisdiction. The latest initiative is seen as the most serious effort in years to curb the presence of weapons inside the camps.

Palestinian resistance movements grew out of displacement and political exclusion after the creation of Israel in 1948, when some 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes.

Over the years, groups including Fatah, Hamas, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) established a presence in Lebanon’s camps to continue armed struggle against Israel.

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon remain without key civil rights, such as access to certain jobs and property ownership. With limited opportunities, many have turned to armed factions for protection or representation.

The disarmament push also comes as Hezbollah faces what analysts describe as its greatest military challenge in decades, following Israeli strikes in 2024 that decimated much of its leadership.

US special envoy Tom Barrack has asked Israel to withdraw from the Lebanese territory after Beirut approved a plan to disarm the Hezbollah group by the end of the year, in exchange for an end to Israeli military attacks on its territory.

“There’s always a step-by-step approach, but I think the Lebanese government has done their part. They’ve taken the first step. Now what we need is Israel to comply with that equal handshake,” Barrack told reporters on Monday, in Lebanon’s capital of Beirut, after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.

The US-backed plan sets out a four-phase roadmap for the Hezbollah group to hand in their arsenal as Israel’s military halts ground, air and sea operations and withdraws troops from Lebanon’s south.

Lebanon’s cabinet approved the plan on August 7 despite Hezbollah’s outright refusal to disarm, raising fears that Israel could intensify attacks on Lebanon, even while it carries out near-daily violations of the November truce it signed with Hezbollah to end its war.

Israel has continued these attacks against Lebanon even in the weeks since the cabinet approved the plan.

Barrack described the cabinet’s decision as a “Lebanese decision that requires Israel’s cooperation” and said the US was “in the process of now discussing with Israel what their position is” but provided no further details.

Asked by reporters about whether he expected to see Israel fully withdraw from Lebanese territory, the US envoy said “that’s exactly the next step” needed.

“There is cooperation from all sides. We are not here to intimidate anyone. The positive outcomes will benefit Hezbollah, Lebanon, and Israel alike,” he said.

‘An economic proposal’

The US envoy also said Washington would seek an economic proposal for post-war reconstruction in the country, after months of shuttle diplomacy between the US and Lebanon.

Barrack voiced optimism after Monday’s meeting, stating: “A return to prosperity and peace is within reach. I believe we will witness progress in several areas in the coming weeks.”

“This is the first visit of the American envoy to Lebanon after the Lebanese cabinet mandated the Lebanese army to assess how to disarm Hezbollah,” said Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Beirut.

“However, there are a lot of concerns with respect to how this process is going to happen, given the fact that Hezbollah refused.”

On Friday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem raised the spectre of civil war, warning there would be “no life” in Lebanon should the state attempt to confront or eliminate the group.

In a written statement after his meeting with Barrack, Aoun said “other parties” now needed to commit to the roadmap’s contents.

Barrack is also set to meet with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri, who often negotiates on behalf of Hezbollah with Washington.

A ‘return to prosperity and peace’?

Under phase one of the US-backed plan, the Lebanese government is to issue a decision committing to Hezbollah’s full disarmament by the end of the year – which it now has – and Israel will cease military operations in Lebanese territory.

In phase two, Lebanon would begin implementing the disarmament plan within 60 days, and the government would approve troop deployments to the south. Then, Israel would begin withdrawing from the south and releasing Lebanese prisoners.

In phase three, which should happen within 90 days of that, Israel is to withdraw from the last two of the five disputed border positions, and money would be secured for Lebanon’s reconstruction.

In phase four, Hezbollah’s remaining heavy weapons are to be dismantled, and Lebanon’s allies will organise a conference to support the country’s economic recovery.

Hezbollah emerged badly weakened from last year’s 14-month war with Israel, during which longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in a huge Israeli strike on Beirut. Before the war, Hezbollah was believed to be better armed than the Lebanese military.

The group has long maintained it needs to keep its arsenal to defend Lebanon from attacks, but critics accused it of using its weapons for political leverage.

Hezbollah has said it refuses to discuss its arsenal until Israel ends its attacks and withdraws troops from southern Lebanon. Aoun and Salam both want to disarm Hezbollah and have also demanded Israel halt its attacks and withdraw from the country.

Just on Monday, Israeli attacks blew up a house in the town of Meiss el-Jabal, a sound bomb went off in the border town of Dahra, and drones could be overheard in the towns of Wadi Zefta, al-Numairiyeh and Wadi Kafra, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

Aoun said he wants to increase funding for Lebanon’s military and raise money from international donors for post-war reconstruction. The World Bank estimates that the war caused $11bn in damage and economic losses. The country has also faced a crippling economic crisis since 2019.

This week’s visit to Lebanon of senior Iranian politician Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, is seen as an attempt to smooth any feathers ruffled by rhetoric from Tehran about Hezbollah’s disarmament.

In early August, the Lebanese government, under pressure from the United States, announced that it would seek to disarm Hezbollah, long considered a principal ally of Tehran, by the end of the year.

The group reacted angrily to the call to disarm with its secretary-general, Naim Qassem, denouncing the idea on Friday and saying the Lebanese government “does not have the right to question the resistance’s legitimacy”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview last week: “We support any decision the group makes, but we do not intervene.”

“This is not the first time they’ve tried to strip Hezbollah of its weapons,” he said. “The reason is clear: The power of resistance has proven itself in the field.”

His comments were received angrily in Beirut. Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji – who is from the anti-Hezbollah, right-wing Lebanese Forces party – said Araghchi’s statement is “firmly rejected and condemned”.

“Such statements undermine Lebanon’s sovereignty, unity and stability and constitute an unacceptable interference in its internal matters and sovereign decisions,” Rajji said.

Hezbollah and Iran have emerged bruised from separate conflicts with Israel in November and June, respectively. Now, Beirut’s instruction for Hezbollah to disarm risks further undermining the relevance of the group at a critical time, analysts said.

Who decides?

Many analysts believe the decision on whether to retain or relinquish its arms may not be Hezbollah’s alone.

”Hezbollah does not have complete freedom of action in this regard,” HA Hellyer of the Royal United Services Institute told Al Jazeera, referencing the group’s close ties with Iran.

“But it doesn’t act simply as a proxy for Tehran and is in the midst of a rather challenging period of its existence, especially given the surrounding geopolitics of the region,” he said of the regional upheavals since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023 and launched subsequent assaults on Lebanon and Syria.

Those assaults inflicted significant damage on Lebanon, principally in the southern Beirut suburbs and southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah’s support base is located.

Lebanon was already locked into an economic crisis before Israel’s war, and the World Bank estimated in May that it would now need $11bn to rebuild. The central government would be responsible for distributing that money, giving it some influence over Hezbollah.

“Tehran will be very opposed to Hezbollah disarming,” Hellyer said. “But if Hezbollah decides it needs to, to preserve its political position, Tehran can’t veto.”

He also suggested that Tehran may see some of its allied groups in Iraq, which Larijani visited before Beirut, more favourably now, especially since the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in December severed its land supply routes to Lebanon.

“Hezbollah is, of course, very important to Iran, but I think the Iraqi militia groups are becoming more so, particularly after the loss of Assad,” Hellyer said.

A threat and a provocation

Hezbollah has long been considered the most powerful nonstate armed actor in the Middle East, a valuable ally for Iran and a nemesis for Israel.

“Hezbollah has always been a threat and a provocation, depending on where you’re standing,“ said Nicholas Blanford, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and an authority on Hezbollah.

“It’s still both, though to a much lesser degree,” he added, noting the damage the group sustained from Israel’s attacks and the assassinations of its leadership in the build-up to and during Israel’s war on Lebanon in October and November.

“It’s clear that Iran wants Hezbollah to remain as it is and, as far as we can tell, is helping it reorganise its ranks.

“It’s also clear from their statements that Hezbollah has no intention of giving up its arms. Even relatively moderate figures within the group are comparing doing so to suicide.”

In his speech on Friday, Qassem’s rejection was unequivocal: “The resistance will not disarm so long as the aggression continues and the occupation persists.

“If necessary, we will fight a Karbala’i battle to confront this Israeli-American project, no matter the costs, and we are certain we will win,” he said, referencing the Battle of Karbala, venerated by Shia Muslims as a foundational battle against tyranny and oppression.

Qassem seemed to exclude the Lebanese military from his ire, warning the government: “Do not embroil the national army in this conflict. … It has a spotless record and does not want [this].”

Inside the tent

Larijani’s visit on Wednesday was seen as a potential opportunity for Beirut to open up new lines of communication with one of the region’s most significant actors, Tehran, and potentially determine what Iran might be willing to consider in return for Hezbollah’s future disarmament.

“It’s not possible for Lebanon to break relations between the Shia community and Iran, any more than it could the Sunni community and Saudi Arabia,” Michael Young of the Carnegie Middle East Center said.

“Iran is a major regional actor. It has a strong relationship with one of [the two] largest communities in the country,” he said of Lebanon’s large Shia community.

“You can’t cut ties. It doesn’t make sense. You want Iranians inside the tent, not outside.”

Given the precarity of Lebanon’s position, balanced between the US support it relies upon and the regional alliances it needs, Young suggested that Lebanese lawmakers nevertheless seek an opportunity to secure some sort of middle ground while accepting that some in Beirut may not be willing to countenance any negotiations with Iran.

“It’s important for the Lebanese to see if there are openings in the Iranian position,” Young continued, casting Larijani’s visit as a potential opportunity for the Lebanese government to influence Iran’s position on Hezbollah’s future.

“And this is something Larijani’s visit, if well exploited, could provide,” he said, “It’s important for the Lebanese to see if the Iranians propose anything in the future or if they show a willingness to compromise on behalf of Hezbollah.”

The security chief’s visit comes after Iran expressed opposition to a government plan to disarm Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s president has told a senior Iranian official that Beirut rejects any interference in its internal affairs and has criticised Tehran’s statements on plans to disarm Hezbollah as “unconstructive”.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council chief Ali Larijani’s visit to Beirut on Wednesday comes a week after the Lebanese government ordered the army to devise plans by the end of 2025 to disarm the Iran-aligned Lebanese armed group.

Iran expressed opposition to the plan to disarm Hezbollah, which before a war with Israel last year was believed to be better armed than the Lebanese military.

“It is forbidden for anyone … to bear arms and to use foreign backing as leverage,” Aoun told Larijani, according to a statement from the Lebanese presidency posted on X.

Larijani responded to Aoun by stating that Iran does not interfere in Lebanese decision-making, and that foreign countries should not give orders to Lebanon.

“Any decision taken by the Lebanese government in consultation with the resistance is respected by us,” he said after separate talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, whose Amal Movement is an ally of Hezbollah.

“Iran didn’t bring any plan to Lebanon, the US did. Those intervening in Lebanese affairs are those dictating plans and deadlines”, said Larijani.

He said Lebanon should not “mix its enemies with its friends – your enemy is Israel, your friend is the resistance”.

Larijani further added that Lebanon should appreciate Hezbollah, and its “value of resistance”.

Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said Larijani appeared to have softened his language on the visit.

“Ali Larijani has been using more diplomatic language than … a few days ago [when] he was blunt that Iran opposes the Lebanese government’s decision to disarm Hezbollah.”

“He said that Iran’s policy is about friendly cooperation, not giving orders and timetables, so he was referring to the United States, the US envoy, which presented a plan to end tensions with Israel, and that plan involves disarming Hezbollah [on] a four-month timetable.”

A ‘state-by-state’ relationship

Dozens of Hezbollah supporters gathered along the airport road to welcome Larijani on Wednesday morning. He briefly stepped out of his car to greet them as they chanted slogans.

“If … the Lebanese people are suffering, we in Iran will also feel this pain and we will stand by the dear people of Lebanon in all circumstances,” Larijani told reporters shortly after landing in Beirut.

The Iranian official is also scheduled to meet Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, as well as Berri, who is close to Hezbollah.

Iran has suffered a series of blows in its long-running rivalry with Israel, including during 12 days of open war between the two countries in June.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, was weakened during the war with Israel, which ended in a November 2024 ceasefire that Israel continues to violate.

The new Lebanese government, backed by the United States, has moved to further restrain the group.

“What the new Lebanese leadership wants is a state-by-state relationship, not like in the past where …  the Iranians would be dealing with Hezbollah and not [with] the Lebanese state,” said Khodr.

Hezbollah has called the government’s disarmament decision a “grave sin”.

Khodr said the tensions have sparked concern about potential unrest in the country.

Hezbollah is part of Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance” – a network of aligned armed groups in the region, including Hamas in Gaza and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who oppose Israel.