Smoke billows after an Israeli Air Force air strike in southern Lebanon village, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from northern Israel, October 3, 2024. REUTERS/Jim Urquhar/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
WASHINGTON, March 28 (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.
Sign up here.
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 WashingtonEditing by Rod Nickel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Daphne Psaledakis
Thomson Reuters
Daphne Psaledakis is a foreign policy correspondent based in Washington, D.C., where she covers U.S. sanctions, Africa and the State Department. She has covered the rollout of U.S. sanctions on Russia after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Washington’s efforts to enforce its sanctions and the U.S. response to the conflict in Ethiopia, among other issues. She previously covered European Union politics and energy and climate policy for Reuters in Brussels as part of an Overseas Press Club Foundation fellowship in 2019. Daphne holds a Bachelor of Journalism in Print and Digital News and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies.
Kanishka Singh
Thomson Reuters
Kanishka Singh is a breaking news reporter for Reuters in Washington DC, who primarily covers US politics and national affairs in his current role. His past breaking news coverage has spanned across a range of topics like the Black Lives Matter movement; the US elections; the 2021 Capitol riots and their follow up probes; the Brexit deal; US-China trade tensions; the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan; the COVID-19 pandemic; and a 2019 Supreme Court verdict on a religious dispute site in his native India.
