As Lebanon discusses ways to disarm Hezbollah, IDF conducts raids to destroy terror group's infrastructure

While the U.S. envoy to Lebanon recently expressed his satisfaction with the country’s response to an American request to disarm the Shi’a terror group Hezbollah, Israel does not appear to view matters with the same level of satisfaction. 

At the beginning of the week, U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack said, “I’m unbelievably satisfied with the response,” after meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. 

“It’s thoughtful, it’s considered. We’re creating a go-forward plan. To create that, we need dialogue. What the government gave us was something spectacular in a very short period of time,” Barrack said regarding Lebanon’s official response to the U.S. request, which has not yet been made public. 

As part of the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel in late 2024, the Lebanese government agreed to accept responsibility for disarming the Hezbollah terror group. However, Israel retained the right to carry out strikes on Hezbollah targets if the Lebanese government did not take care of Hezbollah violations identified by Israel. 

Israel also maintained control over several sites in southern Lebanon, which were to be evacuated once certain conditions outlined in the agreement were met.

As a result of the agreement, Israel has carried out several airstrikes targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and operatives attempting to rehabilitate outposts or transfer weapons south of the Litani River. To date, the IDF has not conducted additional ground operations in Lebanese territory, relying instead on its superior air power to address Hezbollah violations.

However, on Wednesday, the IDF announced that Israeli troops had again conducted raids within Lebanon in order to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure. 

The IDF said that its troops conducted operations in the areas of Jabal Blat Ridge and Labbouneh, destroying a compound containing weapons depots and firing positions in the former, and an underground structure used for storing weapons in the latter. 

⭕️DISMANTLED: Hezbollah weapons and terrorist infrastructure in several areas to prevent Hezbollah from reestablishing itself in southern Lebanon.
The targets struck include:

📍 Jabal Blat Ridge
A compound containing weapons depots and firing positions.

📍Labbouneh
An… pic.twitter.com/MehhTXVMe8

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 9, 2025

In the operation in the Labbouneh area, the reserve forces of the Oded Brigade (9th Brigade) uncovered a multi-barrel rocket launcher, a heavy machine gun, and dozens of explosive devices hidden in an area of dense vegetation. The fighters confiscated and destroyed the weapons at the site. This was in addition to the destruction of the underground structure by combat engineering troops. 

Meanwhile, on Tuesday night, the IDF struck and eliminated the Head of Firepower of the Zahrani sector in Hezbollah's Badr Unit, Hussein Ali Muzhir, in the area of Al-Babliyah in southern Lebanon. 

The IDF said that Ali Muzhir oversaw numerous attacks on the State of Israel and IDF troops. He was also recently involved in Hezbollah's attempts to re-establish artillery capabilities in southern Lebanon, in violation of the ceasefire agreement. 

“The IDF continues to operate in order to eliminate threats against the State of Israel and to prevent attempts by the Hezbollah terror organization to establish a presence, in accordance with the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the IDF said in a statement about the strikes.