UNIFIL says it confiscated 225 Hezbollah weapons stores since Lebanon ceasefire began

UNIFIL, the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, announced Monday that it has confiscated 225 weapon caches belonging to the terror group Hezbollah in the almost six months since the ceasefire with Israel began.

“With the support of UNIFIL, the Lebanese Army has been redeployed to more than 120 permanent positions south of the Litani,” UNIFIL said, but added, “the full deployment of the army is hampered by the presence of Israeli forces on Lebanese territory.”

The UN force is part of the enforcement committee with France, the U.S., Lebanon, and Israel, and has assisted the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to deploy throughout the country’s south, which was once under almost exclusive control of Hezbollah.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah should have completely withdrawn from the area south of the Litani River.

However, the terror group has been trying to restore its capabilities and move weapons to avoid confiscation, drawing numerous Israeli airstrikes, the latest of which targeted a man on a motorcycle near Houla on Tuesday.

At the time of publication there was no confirmation of the strike from the Israeli military.

Israel continues to doubt the effectiveness of UNIFIL, the LAF and the enforcement committee.

Last week, some of the largest Israeli strikes in months destroyed an underground site near Nabatiyeh. The Lebanese newspaper L’Orient Lejour cited a security source who said that Israel had asked the LAF to search the site beforehand, but Hezbollah refused, arguing the site was north of the Litani River.

This demonstrates that despite being severely weakened, the terror group apparently is still strong enough to refuse the Lebanese state’s army entry to areas under its control.

Lebanese media also reported several incidents where local residents in areas in southern Lebanon with strong Hezbollah presence prevented UNIFIL patrols from entering, especially if they operated without LAF troops.

“UNIFIL coordinates its activities closely with the Lebanese Armed Forces and conducts some operations jointly with them,” UNIFIL stated.

The Lebanese government has expressed its intention not just to take control of the entire state territory, but also of all arms in the country, meaning Hezbollah will be disarmed. However, it vowed this would be done in a negotiated process.

In a speech on Monday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem noted that the state “cannot move forward” without the terror group, stressing its achievements in preventing Israeli “aggression.”

“Since 1982, the Resistance has prevented Israel from nibbling away at Lebanese land,” Qassem claimed. “The Resistance prevented Israel from imposing humiliating agreements on Lebanon,” he added.

“You have not succeeded in removing us from the equation, and you will not succeed. You will not achieve through pressure what you failed to achieve through war.”

However, Qassem did not categorically deny disarmament, saying “Israel must respect its obligations under the agreement, and we will agree internally.”