By Daphne Psaledakis and Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said on Friday Israel was defending itself from rocket attacks that came from Lebanon and that it was incumbent upon the Lebanese government to disarm militant groups such as Hezbollah.
The comment from a State Department spokesperson came in a press briefing when asked about Israel conducting its first strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs since a shaky ceasefire deal was struck in November.
Israel’s airstrike came after a rocket launch from Lebanon in the most serious test of the ceasefire.
The strike targeted a building in a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh that Israel said was a drone storage facility belonging to the Iranian-backed Shi’ite militant group.
“Israel is defending its people and interests by responding to rocket attacks from terrorists in Lebanon,” the State Department spokesperson said.
“As part of the cessation of hostilities agreement, the government of Lebanon is responsible for disarming Hezbollah and we expect the Lebanese Armed Forces to disarm these terrorists to prevent further hostilities.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the rocket fire from Lebanon. The Lebanese army said it was able to locate the launch site of Friday’s rocket attacks and began an investigation.
Israel’s war in Lebanon last year displaced more than 1.3 million people, destroyed much of the country’s south and eliminated Hezbollah’s top leadership.
Israel is separately engaged in a military assault on Gaza that has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, while also triggering accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies. Nearly Gaza’s entire 2.3 million population has been internally displaced and the enclave faces a hunger crisis.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, Israeli tallies show.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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