IDF bombs Hezbollah weapon tunnels across Lebanon, as US envoy says terror group can’t be disarmed militarily

The Israeli Air Force pounded several targets of the terror organization Hezbollah across Lebanon overnight, exploiting the lack of attention and time granted by U.S.-Iran talks to degrade the Iranian proxy’s military capabilities, as it has done the past several weekends.

Senior U.S. officials, meanwhile, publicly disagreed regarding ongoing efforts by the Lebanese government to disarm the group.

Last month, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) claimed it completed assuming control of the area south of the Litani River, saying that Hezbollah’s presence had been banished from there.

However, Israel has strongly disputed this and conducted several airstrikes against Hezbollah in the region, as well as in other parts of the country, in recent months.

🎯STRUCK: Tunnel shafts used for weapons storage at several Hezbollah sites across Lebanon. Following the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of weapons in the area.

Over the past several months, Hezbollah terrorist activity was identified at… pic.twitter.com/6SjHM8jWm0

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 5, 2026

On Thursday, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham walked out of a meeting with the LAF’s commander after he refused to call Hezbollah a “terror group.”

Writing on 𝕏, Graham said he asked General Rodolphe Haykal, “point blank if he believes Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. He said, ‘No, not in the context of Lebanon.’ With that, I ended the meeting. They are clearly a terrorist organization.”

He noted that Hezbollah has American blood on its hands, and has been designated a terrorist organization “since 1997 – for good reason. As long as this attitude exists from the Lebanese Armed Forces, I don’t think we have a reliable partner in them. I am tired of the double speak in the Middle East. Too much is at stake.”

His stance was countersignaled by U.S. special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, who suggested that the disarmament would have to be achieved through a negotiated process rather than by the military, which is exactly what Hezbollah has demanded.

“This idea of saying you to disarm Hezbollah … you’re not actually gonna do it militarily,” stressing that “nobody wants a civil war in Lebanon,” he said during a seminar on Thursday.

צה"ל תקף פירים ששימשו לאחסון אמצעי לחימה של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במספר מרחבים בלבנון

צה"ל תקף לפני זמן קצר פירים ששימשו לאחסון אמצעי לחימה באתרים צבאיים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במספר מרחבים בלבנון.
לאחר התקיפה זוהו פיצוצי משנה המעידים על הימצאות אמצעי הלחימה במרחב.

בחודשים… pic.twitter.com/SibeHYR2ya

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) February 5, 2026

Barrack added, “The U.S. is saying Hezbollah needs to be disarmed, Hezbollah is a foreign terrorist organization, it cannot exist. My personal opinion is, you kill one terrorist, you create ten. That can’t be the answer, there has to be another answer and the Lebanese leadership now … is terrific.”

He also said that he hoped Israel would not launch another large attack against Hezbollah, saying that the “attacks haven’t worked.”

Ever since the ceasefire with Israel was signed at the end of November 2024, Washington has pressured the Lebanese government to establish security control over its territory, with a focus on disarming the powerful Iran-backed proxy, Hezbollah.

However, despite political efforts to do so, Israel has warned that the group has been rearming itself faster than the overmatched LAF has been able to deploy its forces and confiscate the occasional weapons depot.

One of Iran's main goals in building up Hezbollah was for it to serve as a deterrence against Israeli strikes on its nuclear program.

The IDF says it has launched a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in several areas of Lebanon.

According to Lebanese media, one strike hit an area near the southern Lebanese town of Mahmoudiyeh. pic.twitter.com/ZZNn1Gu3LX

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) February 5, 2026

While the events of the past two years removed most of the significant threats posed by the group, as well as the nuclear threat from Iran, the IDF has still been utilizing the past few weekends to launch massive airstrikes in Lebanon, most of them not in the south but targeting storage sites of strategic weapons, often located deeper within Lebanese territory.

The apparent goal is to use the period before a potential broad-scale escalation of the U.S.-Iran conflict, which is likely to draw in Hezbollah forces, to further degrade the group’s capabilities.

On Friday morning, the IDF said it struck “tunnel shafts used for weapons storage,” noting that “following the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of weapons in the area.”

The military stressed that the “terrorist activity was identified at the sites” in the past months, “constituting a violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”

According to Lebanese reports, multiple strikes struck targets around Jezzine and Hasbaya, as well as the Hermel region.