Israel warns of intensifying attacks against Hezbollah

Israel warned on Nov. 2 that its military would step up its attacks against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, a day after the Lebanese Health Ministry reported four people killed in an Israeli air strike.

Despite a November 2024 ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group, Israel maintains troops in five areas in southern Lebanon and has kept up regular strikes.

Since the ceasefire, the United States has increased pressure on Lebanese authorities to disarm the group, a plan opposed by Hezbollah and its allies.

"Hezbollah is playing with fire and the president of Lebanon is dragging his feet," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

"The Lebanese government's commitment to disarm Hezbollah and remove it from southern Lebanon must be implemented. Maximum enforcement will continue and even intensify, we will not allow any threat to the residents of the north."

Barrack: Lebanon a 'failed state'

Meanwhile, the U.S. special envoy for Syria on called Lebanon “a failed state” in remarks underscoring Washington’s frustration with Beirut’s “paralyzed government.”

Speaking at the Manama Dialogue summit in Bahrain during a panel on “U.S. Policy in the Levant,” Thomas Barrack pointedly said Lebanon was the only state in the region “not jumping in line” with the new Middle East realignments.

"The state is Hezbollah,” he said, noting that the Iran-backed group provides for its supporters and fighters in ways the Lebanese state cannot — in a country where basic services like electricity and water are chronically unreliable.

“It is really up to the Lebanese. America is not going to get deeper involved in the situation with a foreign terrorist organization and a failed state dictating the pace and asking for more resources and more money and more help,” he said.

Barrack added that the U.S. would not intervene in regional disputes but would support its ally "if Israel becomes more aggressive toward Lebanon.”