Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday accused Israel of responding to its offer to negotiate by intensifying its airstrikes, the latest of which killed a man riding a motorbike in southern Lebanon — according to Israel, a Hezbollah operative involved in restoring the terror group’s infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
Despite a November 2024 ceasefire with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, Israel maintains troops in five positions in southern Lebanon that it says are necessary for securing northern communities, and has kept up regular airstrikes on targets it says were violating the ceasefire.
Aoun called for negotiations with Israel in mid-October, after US President Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Lebanon is ready for negotiations to end the Israeli occupation, but any negotiation… requires mutual willingness, which is not the case,” Aoun said on Friday. Israel “is responding to this option by carrying out more attacks against Lebanon… and intensifying tensions,” he added during a meeting with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Hezbollah is restocking rockets, anti-tank missiles and artillery, increasing the chances of renewed conflict with Israel.
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The report, which cited people familiar with Israeli and Arab intelligence, said Hezbollah is rearming by smuggling weapons through seaports, as well as smuggling routes through Syria, leading Israel to lose patience with Lebanon over its commitment to disarm the terror group. Israel was angered by recent intelligence findings on the issue, the sources added.
Lebanon’s leaders have passed a message to Israel through mediators asking for Jerusalem to have patience with their efforts to disarm Hezbollah, and said they are open to expanding cooperation on the matter, The Journal reported.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel in October 2023, a day after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas invaded southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza. After nearly a year of cross-border fire, Israel launched an intensive campaign against the terror group in September 2024, massively degrading its forces and eliminating most of its top leadership. A ceasefire was declared in November.
The ceasefire required both Israel and Hezbollah to vacate southern Lebanon, to be replaced by the Lebanese armed forces. Israel has withdrawn from all but five strategic posts along the border. Since the ceasefire, the IDF says it has killed over 330 Hezbollah operatives in strikes, hit hundreds of Hezbollah sites, and conducted over 1,000 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon in response to violations by the terror group.
Weakened by the war and still facing regular Israeli strikes, Hezbollah is under internal and international pressure to hand over its weapons, and the Lebanese army has drawn up a plan to disarm it.
On Friday, Germany’s Wadephul offered his support to Aoun, stating that he would urge his Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa’ar to withdraw Israeli troops from southern Lebanon.
In this handout photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency press office on October 31, 2025, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (L) meets with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut. (HANDOUT / Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
“Israel must withdraw. I understand that Israel has security needs… But in fact, we now need a process of mutual trust-building,” the German minister said.
Wadephul also encouraged the Lebanese government to ensure there is “a credible, transparent and rapid process of disarming Hezbollah.” He acknowledged that it was “a mammoth task” but contended it was “a basic prerequisite for this country to experience stability and for there to be no further conflict with Israel.”
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said an Israeli drone targeted a man on a motorbike in the village of Kunin on Friday. The health ministry reported one death and one person wounded. The Israeli military said it had “eliminated… a Hezbollah maintenance officer” who was working to reestablish the Iran-backed group’s infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon.
The strike came a day after the Israeli military killed a municipal worker in a raid in the Lebanese border village of Blida. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the incident, saying it had opened fire on a suspect during an operation to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure in the town of Blida.
Aoun ordered the army on Thursday to confront such incursions.
A Lebanese soldier sits on top of a military vehicle outside the municipality building of the southern Lebanese border village of Blida in the aftermath of an Israeli army raid on the village, on October 30, 2025 (Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi asked his visiting German counterpart on Friday to “help put pressure on Israel to stop its attacks.”
“Only a diplomatic solution, not a military one, can ensure stability and guarantee calm in the south,” Raggi was quoted by the NNA as saying.
He added that “the Lebanese government is continuing to gradually implement its decision to place all weapons under its control.”
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