WSJ: Beirut strips Hezbollah of southern strongholds with covert Israeli intel

Lebanon’s armed forces have successfully dismantled much of Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in the country’s southern regions, with support from Israeli intelligence relayed via the United States.

The move is part of a broader push by Lebanon’s new government to enforce a cease-fire that ended fierce cross-border fighting with Israel late last year, Caliber.Az reports, citing The Wall Street Journal.

Senior U.S. and Israeli officials have expressed cautious optimism, saying the Lebanese army's progress has been vital to maintaining the truce agreed in November. However, questions remain over whether Beirut can replicate this success in other parts of the country.

“All over the Lebanese territory, the state should have a monopoly on arms,” Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told The Wall Street Journal, knocking his fists on a dining table to emphasise his point.

Salam said his government has fulfilled about 80% of its goals in disarming militias in the country’s southernmost areas. According to senior Arab officials, Israeli intelligence, passed to Lebanon through Washington, has enabled the Lebanese military to uncover and destroy Hezbollah stockpiles and outposts south of the Litani River.

The Lebanese army has reportedly destroyed a portion of the confiscated arms, while retaining usable weapons to bolster its own limited arsenal. This has helped the army assert authority over an area traditionally dominated by Hezbollah, including securing key entry and exit routes.

“We do see a lot of areas where the Lebanese army is way more effective than expected,” an Israeli military official said. “The IDF is generally pleased by this trend and we are expecting it to continue.”

The government in Beirut is also pursuing a broader, multi-phase plan to disarm Palestinian armed groups, mainly based in Lebanon’s refugee camps. In April, Lebanese security forces arrested members of a Palestinian cell suspected of launching rockets into Israel—an unusual and significant move.

Under the terms of the cease-fire, disarmament efforts were to begin south of the Litani River. Both Salam and the United States have called for Hezbollah’s disarmament to be expanded to the rest of the country.

So far, Hezbollah has cooperated with the army’s operations in the south and has relinquished some control over strategic locations, including Beirut’s airport, according to Lebanese security officials.

Sources familiar with Hezbollah’s internal strategy suggest the group is seeking to bolster its domestic image by cooperating with disarmament—particularly as Lebanon courts financial aid from Western and Gulf Arab donors, who are hostile to the group and attaching conditions to any assistance.

Nonetheless, it remains unclear whether Hezbollah will continue to cooperate as the campaign moves north. “Unless Hezbollah is willing and ready to disarm itself, I don’t see a scenario where a Lebanese government will take the decision to disarm them by force,” said Randa Slim, a fellow at the Johns Hopkins University-based Foreign Policy Institute.

“Instead, they need to make Hezbollah’s unwillingness to disarm untenable and politically costly to them by linking reconstruction of Shia-majority areas to their disarmament.”

For Prime Minister Salam’s government, pushing for full disarmament is a high-stakes gamble. Hezbollah continues to wield substantial influence in Lebanon, enjoying the backing of hundreds of thousands, primarily from the Shia community. Founded during the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s with support from Iran, the group has grown into one of the world’s most heavily armed non-state actors.

However, its position has been weakened following a two-month Israeli military campaign that reportedly eliminated key Hezbollah leaders and destroyed significant portions of its arsenal. The intense fighting killed thousands and inflicted massive damage on Lebanese infrastructure, harming Hezbollah’s reputation at home—even among its traditional base.

Despite the cease-fire, Israeli airstrikes have continued, targeting Hezbollah positions across Lebanon, including in Beirut. The Israeli military also maintains a presence in the country’s south, according to the UN peacekeeping mission, Unifil.

Hezbollah’s leadership has been vague about its future strategy. Officials continue to argue that the group must remain armed, citing threats from Israel, the inadequacy of Lebanon’s state army, and security concerns linked to Sunni extremist violence spilling over from Syria.

“Hezbollah arms that continue to exist in certain parts are points of strength of Lebanon,” said Ibrahim Mousawi, a Hezbollah MP.

The group now faces hurdles in rebuilding its military capacity. Key weapons routes from Iran through Syria have been severed following the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his replacement by a government hostile to both Iran and Hezbollah. Moreover, a clampdown at Beirut’s airport has curtailed Hezbollah’s ability to bring in funds.

There is growing anxiety in Lebanon over what might happen if Hezbollah refuses further disarmament north of the Litani. While both the Lebanese government and Hezbollah say they wish to avoid civil conflict, the country’s past looms large.

The Lebanese army is unlikely to confront Hezbollah directly, having long been under-equipped and wary of inflaming sectarian tensions in a nation with significant Christian, Sunni, Shia, and Druze populations.

“We don’t want to put the country onto a civil-war track, but believe me, this is not going to affect our commitment to the need to extend and consolidate the authority of the state,” said Salam.

By Aghakazim Guliyev