Six Lebanese soldiers were killed earlier this week in an explosion at a Hezbollah site near the Israeli border, the Lebanese army announced.

On August 7, the Lebanese government announced that its cabinet has approved a US-backed proposal for disarming Hezbollah and other armed terror groups and set a deadline of the end of 2025 to complete the process. The soldiers were killed during an attempt to clear weapons from a Hezbollah facility.

The US has been applying increasingly heavy pressure on the Lebanese government in the past year to disarm Hezbollah, and the Lebanese government finally made a decision to carry it out.

However, Hezbollah has fervently rejected the move, vowing “to die rather than disarm.” Most of Lebanon’s Shiite community remain faithful to Hezbollah, partially due to ideology but mainly due to their financial dependence on the terror group, which continues to be funded by Iran. Shiites make up about 40% of Lebanon’s population.

In fact, a senior Iranian security official, Ali Larijani, is traveling to Lebanon this week for “consultations” with the government. His visit comes after Tehran expressed strong opposition to Lebanon’s plan to disarm its proxy Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is also determined to remain armed due to fear of retaliatory attacks from Sunnis and Christians, a perception bolstered by the recent clashes between sectors in Syria that ended in a massacre in the Druze town of Sweida.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)