Informed sources in Tel Aviv said the Israeli strike on Lebanon on Friday was the response chosen by the military following remarks by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who praised what he described as the Lebanese army’s “insufficient” efforts to disarm Hezbollah.
The strikes also followed a statement by the Lebanese government announcing the completion of the first phase of that mission.
Military sources, quoted across Israeli media, said Hezbollah “remains present in southern Lebanon and is seeking to restore its strength, reinforce its positions, resupply its forces with weapons, and maintain its tunnel network.”
These claims were used to justify a series of Israeli air strikes targeting southern and eastern Lebanon on Friday.
Despite Israel’s official skepticism toward the Lebanese army’s declaration that it had achieved the “objectives of the first phase” of disarming Hezbollah south of the Litani River — an announcement the Israeli military dismissed as “inaccurate and not reflective of the security reality on the ground” — Israeli thinking about launching a large-scale military response has cooled.
Political and military sources said Israel has “begun to retreat, for now, from the idea of a major strike and decided to settle for intense but limited attacks.”
Those same sources had previously said Netanyahu agreed with US President Donald Trump during a meeting in Florida last week to carry out a major strike against Hezbollah, in exchange for Netanyahu’s acceptance of most US demands regarding Gaza and Syria.
The rationale for striking Hezbollah is said to be ready and enjoys near consensus in Israel, with opinion polls showing 57 percent of the public in favor of an immediate attack.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu’s office issued an official statement asserting that the US-brokered ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon “clearly stipulates the complete disarmament of Hezbollah,” describing this as “essential for Israel’s security and Lebanon’s future.”
According to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, army sources say Hezbollah’s presence in the area “has not ended” and that the military “continues to monitor the group’s activities even now.”
While Israel views positively the Lebanese army’s acknowledgment that “tasks remain unfinished,” it doubts the army’s “ability to carry them out in practice.”
An Israeli military source said Tel Aviv’s assessment of the disarmament file “is not based on statements, but on operational data and results,” stressing that “as long as Hezbollah’s military infrastructure south of the Litani remains, there can be no talk of real disarmament.”
According to military sources cited by the Walla news site, Hezbollah has smuggled large quantities of weapons and bags containing millions of dollars across the Turkish border to rebuild its power and bolster its popular support.
While this underscores, in Israeli eyes, the inevitability of a major strike, the tone has shifted in recent hours.
Sources say Netanyahu fears such an operation now could divert attention from dramatic developments in Iran, where Israel, keenly interested in the regime’s collapse, does not want to distract from ongoing protests.
