With Hezbollah rearming, Israel starts to lose patience with Lebanon — report

The Hezbollah terror group is restocking rockets, anti-tank missiles, and artillery, increasing the chances of renewed conflict with Israel, people familiar with Israeli and Arab intelligence tell the Wall Street Journal.

Hezbollah is rearming by smuggling weapons through seaports, as well as smuggling routes through Syria, leading Israel to lose patience with Lebanon over its commitment to disarm the terror group, the sources say.

Israel was angered by recent intelligence findings on the issue, the sources add.

Lebanon’s leaders have passed a message to Israel through mediators asking for Jerusalem to have patience with their efforts to disarm Hezbollah, and said they are open to expanding cooperation on the matter, WSJ reports.

A US-brokered ceasefire in November 2024 with Hezbollah came after two months of open conflict in south Lebanon, which Israel invaded in a bid to ensure the return home of some 60,000 northern residents displaced by Hezbollah’s near-daily attacks. The rocket attacks began on October 8, 2023 — a day after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas invaded southern Israel, sparking the war against Hamas in Gaza.

The ceasefire required both Israel and Hezbollah to vacate southern Lebanon, to be replaced by the Lebanese armed forces. Israel has withdrawn from all but five strategic posts along the border.

Since the ceasefire, the IDF said, it has killed over 330 Hezbollah operatives in strikes, hit hundreds of Hezbollah sites, and conducted over 1,000 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon.

Weakened by the war and still facing regular Israeli strikes, Hezbollah is under internal and international pressure to hand over its weapons, and the Lebanese army has drawn up a plan to disarm it.