[Regnum] The Israeli military attacked the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, explaining their actions by the need to prevent the smuggling of weapons for the armed formations of the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah. This was reported on February 21 by the press service of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“Some time ago, the Israel Defense Forces attacked border crossings on the Syrian-Lebanese border, through which the terrorist organization Hezbollah was attempting to smuggle weapons into Lebanon,” the statement said.
The IDF said the smuggling attempts were a "gross violation of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon." The Israeli military warned that it intends to prevent any threat to its state and to thwart any attempts by Hezbollah to rebuild its forces.
Earlier, Regnum news agency reported that, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated, the Shiite movement Hezbollah must be disarmed by the Lebanese army.
In September 2024, mass pager explosions began in different parts of Lebanon. The country's Health Minister Firas Obyad later reported that 12 people were killed, two of whom were children, and about 4,000 people were injured. Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson called Israel a terrorist state after this operation. Netanyahu admitted for the first time on November 10 that he was involved in the pager operation in Lebanon. He said that he approved the September attack on Hezbollah.
On February 4, Netanyahu presented US President Donald Trump with a gold-plated and a regular pager as a gift in memory of the Israeli intelligence operation to detonate explosive devices belonging to Hezbollah members.