US envoy to Lebanon and Israel Morgan Ortagus was briefed on Sunday on Hezbollah’s activities and attempts to rebuild its military infrastructure in Lebanon.
During a visit to Israel, she was also briefed on the army’s defensive and offensive plans along the border with Lebanon.
Ortagus, Defense Minister Israel Katz, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, Commander of Israel’s Northern Command Rafi Milo, and representatives of the US Central Command and Israeli national security council toured the Israeli border with Lebanon on Sunday, a day before Ortagus is set to visit Beirut to attend meetings of the committee overseeing the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel.
The meeting is set to be held on Wednesday as Israel has intensified its assassinations of members of Iran-backed Hezbollah. Since Thursday, it has killed eleven people, including at least seven Hezbollah members.
Israel has assassinated over 365 members of the party since the ceasefire was reached in November in what it says are efforts to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its military capabilities and infrastructure.
During Sunday's tour, Katz expressed his gratitude to US President Trump and Ortagus for their support for Israel and its efforts to protect its borders.
Israel will continue to defend its northern regions against any threats, he vowed.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that his country would seek no approval to strike targets in Gaza or Lebanon, despite agreeing to ceasefires.
"Israel is an independent state. We will defend ourselves by our own means and we will continue to determine our fate," Netanyahu told a meeting of government ministers.
"We do not seek anyone's approval for this. We control our security," he said, following a week of visits by a parade of the highest level US officials seeking to consolidate the ceasefire in Gaza.
Lebanon is under international pressure to disarm Hezbollah and implement its government decision to impose state monopoly over arms. Hezbollah has remained defiant, however, refusing to lay down its weapons despite the daily Israeli attacks against its members.
Head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc MP Mohammed Raad said on Sunday: "Key to Lebanon's security and stability does not lie in meeting the conditions of the enemy, but in making Israel meet its commitments and really cease its attacks."
He underlined the need to bolster national unity to confront Israel’s ambitions.
Moreover, he said it was "wrong to claim that the resistance [Hezbollah] was to blame for the enemy’s shameful attacks. Rather, Israel is attacking Lebanon because it is pursuing an expansionist agenda and it wants Lebanon to yield to it."
On Sunday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the southern town of al-Naqoura. Another person was killed in an Israeli drone strike on the town of al-Nabi Chit and a third, a Syrian, was killed in a strike on the town of al-Hafir on Sunday night.
Israel killed two people on Saturday on a strike on a car and motorcycle. Its army said it targeted members of Hezbollah’s Radwan Unit.
Lebanese political parties are demanding that Hezbollah lay down its weapons.
Member of the Strong Republic bloc MP Said al-Asmar said an Israeli military escalation is still on the table. "This is what we have been hearing from American officials, and the Lebanese people will pay the price of such a development," he warned, saying the solution lies in Hezbollah’s disarmament.
"We are not acquitting Israel of anything, but we also have a responsibility that we are not meeting. Israel will continue to attack us as long as Hezbollah keeps on asserting that it is recovering its capabilities and ready to go to war at any moment," he added.
