U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus is expected to arrive in Beirut on Monday for discussions with Lebanese officials about disarming Hezbollah, sources familiar with the visit said, as fears grow in Lebanon over a potential renewed Israeli air campaign against the group.
Those worries have been driven by days of intensifying Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s south and east that have killed more than a dozen people, most of them Hezbollah members, according to Lebanese security sources.
Lebanon fears the bombing shows Israel intends to ramp up its air campaign, despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was intended to end a year-long war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Ortagus To Review Disarmament
Ortagus, the White House’s deputy Middle East envoy, is expected to attend a meeting on Wednesday reviewing the Lebanese army’s efforts to clear Hezbollah arms caches in the country’s south, in line with the 2024 truce.
Another U.S. envoy, Tom Barrack, warned last week that Hezbollah may face a new confrontation with Israel if Lebanese authorities fail to act quickly to disarm the group in full, which Hezbollah has so far rejected doing.
On Sunday, an Israeli strike killed a man whom Israel said was a weapons dealer on behalf of Hezbollah. Lebanese security sources said the man, named Ali al-Musawi, was the most senior member of the group to be killed since the ceasefire.
Also on Sunday, United Nations peacekeepers said they had “neutralised” an Israeli drone that was flying over their patrol in south Lebanon in “an aggressive manner”.
A source briefed on the incident told Reuters that peacekeepers shot the drone instead of downing it with jamming devices because it was deemed to be posing a threat, and that an Israeli tank then fired a warning shot near peacekeepers.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said the drone was carrying out “routine intelligence gathering” and was not posing a threat. He said Israeli troops then threw a hand grenade at the area, but did not fire directly at U.N. troops.
The Israeli military says its continued strikes in Lebanon are targeting Hezbollah’s attempts to re-establish military infrastructure in the south, which the group denies doing.
(With inputs from Reuters)
