Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Friday that a state monopoly on weapons was inevitable, and urged a committee supervising the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to ensure Lebanon’s army was the only armed presence in the country’s south.

Under heavy US pressure and fearing expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming the Iran-backed terror group, which emerged badly weakened from more than a year of hostilities with Israel that largely ended with a ceasefire last November.

Despite the truce, Israel has kept up frequent strikes on Lebanon, saying it is mostly targeting Hezbollah due to its violations of the truce and attempts to rearm and rebuild.

An Israeli airstrike earlier this week also targeted a Hamas training facility in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, killing 13 members of the group, the IDF confirmed Friday.

The military said the strike, carried out with precision munitions and aerial surveillance, was intended to minimize civilian harm.

The IDF criticized Lebanon, saying the state had pledged to disarm armed factions in the camps, but that Hamas continued to exploit civilian areas for military purposes. It added that the facility “is clear........

© The Times of Israel