IDF: Hezbollah working to rebuild Beirut arms production site in breach of ceasefire
Terror group has allegedly returned equipment to facility — located under residential buildings, next to a school — that Israel bombed in November, as US urges group’s disarmament
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday that the Hezbollah terror group is attempting to rebuild a weapons manufacturing site in Beirut’s southern suburbs and trying to conceal its activity from a US-led mechanism monitoring the ceasefire. The military said this would be a violation of the understandings between the sides under the November 2024 ceasefire deal.
In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, said the weapons site, located under residential buildings and next to a school, was bombed by Israel in November 2024.
Adraee said that after the IDF sent the truce mechanism information on Hezbollah’s attempts to rebuild the site in early January, a surprise inspection was carried out.
“However, aerial photographs show that Hezbollah, which had been informed in advance of the date of the inspection, had evacuated the engineering equipment that had been operating at the site on the day the inspection was conducted, and then returned it after it had ended,” he said.
He added that the Hezbollah activity at the site is a “blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon under the ceasefire agreement.”
The area south of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh, in which the alleged manufacturing facility is located, has long been a Hezbollah stronghold. The IDF frequently hit targets there during the recent war, including in the massive strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah in September 2024.
#عاجل هكذا يحاول حزب الله اعمار موقع إنتاج في الضاحية الجنوبية ويُخفي نشاطه عن آلية الرقابة ويكذب على اللبنانيين: خلال تفتيش مفاجئ اختفت الآليات الهندسية، وعادت إلى العمل بعد انتهائه خلافًا لاتفاق وقف إطلاق النار
????يكشف جيش الدفاع أن حزب الله يحاول خلال الأشهر الأخيرة إعادة… pic.twitter.com/kdv9PoDog0
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) April 9, 2025
Adraee’s post about the facility came amid calls to disarm the group, whose overland and air conduits for weapons were largely shut down due to Israeli attacks, the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and crackdowns on smuggling by the Lebanese government.
According to a Tuesday report in the Saudi al-Hadath news outlet, citing a Western official, the Iran-backed terror group has shifted to using a sea-based route for smuggling, beginning to reassert control over Beirut’s seaport for that purpose.
A US envoy in Lebanon last weekend repeated Washington’s position that Hezbollah and other armed groups should be disarmed as soon as possible, and that the Lebanese army is expected to do the job.
A Reuters report on Tuesday, citing Lebanese political officials, said that US-backed President Joseph Aoun intends to open talks with Hezbollah over its arsenal soon.
The report also quoted an unnamed senior Hezbollah official, who said the group was ready to discuss its arms in the context of a national defense strategy, but that this hinged on Israel pulling out its troops from the five hilltops in southern Lebanon where the IDF maintains a presence.
Ihab Hamadeh, a Lebanese MP for Hezbollah, rejected that report on Wednesday, telling Qatar’s Al-Araby TV that Hezbollah does not have unnamed “sources,” and when it has something to say, it says it in an official capacity.
Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks beginning on October 8, 2023, forced the evacuation of 60,000 northern residents, killed dozens of people and caused significant damage. Israel hit back with airstrikes, and by September 2024, the conflict escalated into open war, during which Israel decimated Hezbollah’s leadership and stockpiles. The war ended in a late November 2024 ceasefire, which has largely held despite mutual accusations of violations.
Under the agreement, Israeli forces were to withdraw from southern Lebanon while Hezbollah was to remove its military infrastructure from the area. Troops remain in five points deemed “strategic” by the Israeli military. Israel also maintains the right to strike targets that pose an imminent threat.
Nurit Yohanan, agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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