Lebanese army storms over 500 Hezbollah sites across South and Beirut

The Lebanese army has raided more than 500 Hezbollah locations across both sides of the Litani River and in Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to government sources on April 29.

The sources also revealed that the head of the ceasefire monitoring committee, US General Jasper Jeffers, is scheduled to visit Beirut on April 30, Caliber.Az reports citing Arab media. 

He will begin his trip with political meetings, including with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri.

Meanwhile, Israel announced it had targeted Hezbollah infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon. Lebanese officials said they intend to brief General Jeffers on the country’s progress in implementing the ceasefire agreement and will lodge a formal complaint over Israeli violations.

On April 27, Israel bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs for the third time since the US-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah was reached in November.

According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, the strike targeted a warehouse allegedly used by Hezbollah to store "precision missiles," aiming to prevent the group from using the area as a “safe haven.”

In response, President Aoun urgently called on the United States and France—both guarantors of the ceasefire—to “shoulder their responsibilities and compel Israel to halt its aggression immediately.”

The ceasefire agreement, which ended more than a year of hostilities, stipulated a halt to all acts of aggression, a full Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah’s retreat from areas south of the Litani River, along with the dismantling of its military infrastructure there.

In return, the Lebanese army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were to bolster their presence along the border.

However, Israel has yet to withdraw from five strategic locations in the south that overlook both sides of the border and has hinted it may maintain its presence there indefinitely.

By Aghakazim Guliyev