Israel Strikes Lebanon Again Ahead of Hezbollah Demobilization Deadline

Israeli military/PHOTO via Instagram @israeliairforce

Israel carried out a series of air raids in southern and eastern Lebanon on Thursday ahead of a deadline to disarm the militant group Hezbollah along the tense border.

The attack came a day before a meeting of a committee monitoring the implementation of a US-mediated ceasefire that halted the last war between Israel and Hezbollah a year ago.

This will be the second meeting of the mechanism after Israel and Lebanon appointed civilian members to the committee, which previously only had military members.

The group also includes the US, France, and UN peacekeepers stationed along the border.

In Paris, the Lebanese military commander, General Rodolph Haikal, is scheduled to meet on Thursday, December 18, with US, French and Saudi officials to discuss ways to help the military in its mission to increase its presence in the border region.

The Lebanese government said the military should have cleared the entire border area south of the Litani river of Hezbollah's armed presence by the end of the year.

The Israeli military said the attack hit a Hezbollah infrastructure site and a launch site in a military compound the group uses to conduct training and courses for its fighters.

The Israeli military said it struck several Hezbollah military structures where weapons were stored, and from which Hezbollah members had been operating recently.

The government-run Lebanese National News Agency said the intensive air raids extended from areas in Mount Rihan in the south to the Hermel region in the northeast bordering Syria.

Shortly afterwards, a drone strike targeted a car near the southern city of Taybeh, killing casualties, NNA said.

"This is Israel's message to the Paris meeting aimed at supporting the Lebanese army," Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said of the attack, quoted by the Associated Press.

"The Israeli air strike belt is in honor of the meeting of the mechanism tomorrow," Berri continued during a parliamentary meeting in Beirut.