LONDON, November 10. /TASS/. The Israeli military has demanded Lebanon’s army search private homes in the country's south to ensure the disarmament of the Hezbollah movement, Reuters reported, citing Lebanese and Israeli sources.
The demand was presented to Lebanon through a mediation mechanism set up with US assistance. According to the news agency, Israel is displeased with the pace of Hezbollah’s disarmament and says it has evidence of weapons being relocated to other parts of the country. According to the Israeli authorities, Lebanon will not be able to make sure that Hezbollah is fully disarmed without conducting mass searches.
Reuters notes that the Lebanese army rejected Israel’s demand. Beirut believes that such operations may undermine the gradual disarmament process, create instability and trigger civil unrest. The news agency’s sources say "Lebanon's army fears that residents of the south would see house raids as subservience to Israel." "They're demanding that we do house-to-house searches, and we won't do that; <...> we aren't going to do things their way," a Lebanese security official told Reuters.
Sources note that the Lebanese military leadership believes the current strategy of Hezbollah’s disarmament is the most effective one, and the Lebanese authorities expect that the process will be completed by the end of the year.