Lebanese army chief briefs government on Hezbollah's disarmament

Lebanon's army chief on Monday briefed the government for the first time on its plan to disarm the Lebanese group Hezbollah, while Israel carried out airstrikes in southern and northeastern Lebanon that killed two people.

Army commander Gen. Rudolph Haikal's report came a month after the Cabinet discussed the military's plan to put all weapons under state control.

No details of his briefing were immediately shared. Information Minister Paul Morcos told reporters that the Cabinet decided to keep the plan and all discussions about it "secret".

Hezbollah has rejected the plan, saying it won't discuss disarmament as long as Israel continues to occupy several hills along the border and carries out almost daily strikes. The group was badly weakened during its latest war with Israel, which ended with a ceasefire in November.

The Lebanese government first aimed to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year, but officials later said resources are too limited to meet the deadline.

The current aim is to fully clear a stretch along the Lebanon-Israel border, defined as south of the Litani river, by the end of November, before moving into further phases.

Lebanon's army has suffered the repercussions of the country's economic meltdown for six years. Western and Arab countries have offered support. Last week, the Trump administration approved $230 million to Lebanon's army and police forces.

Ed Gabriel, president of the American Task Force on Lebanon, a nonprofit that aims to build stronger US-Lebanon ties, told journalists on Monday that the $190 million for the armed forces and $40 million for Internal Security Forces will be mainly in training and equipment.

Gabriel, who met several top officials in recent days, including Haikal and President Joseph Aoun, said the president is "determined to get things (disarmament) done."

He added that the Lebanese government has to make it clear that it is not backing down from full disarmament of Hezbollah, and said a weakness in the plan is that "they don't have a specific timetable."

He added that the international community wants Hezbollah's "strategic weapons", such as precision-guided missiles and drones, to be removed.

The most recent Israel-Hezbollah war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated $11 billion worth of destruction, according to the World Bank. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers.

The war started when Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border on 8 October 2023, a day after a deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza.

Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war in September 2024.