Israel Targets Hezbollah In South Lebanon As US Envoy Visits

Israel staged a strike in south Lebanon on Sunday that it said had targeted Hezbollah, and authorities said killed two people, as a US envoy visited for talks on the militant group and economic reforms.

The strike came more than four months into a fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah, and a day after US deputy special envoy for the Middle East, Morgan Ortagus, discussed disarming the Iran-backed with senior figures, according to a Lebanese official.

The Lebanese health ministry said two people were killed in an "Israeli enemy" strike on the town of Zibqin in the south of the country near the border.

The Israeli military said it targeted two Hezbollah operatives in the area who were "attempting to rebuild Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites".

The Lebanese army said the strike hit "a bulldozer and an excavator", and that "there was no military equipment at the site".

Israel has continued to launch strikes on Lebanon since the November 27 ceasefire that largely halted more than a year of hostilities, with raids this week in south Lebanon and even on Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold.

The truce accord was based on a UN Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.

The Lebanese official, speaking anonymously as they were not authorised to brief the media, said Saturday that Ortagus discussed "intensifying and speeding up" the Lebanese army's work in "dismantling Hezbollah's military infrastructure, leading to restricting weapons to state hands, without setting a timetable".

Under the truce, Hezbollah was to redeploy fighters north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Israel, and dismantle remaining military infrastructure in the south.

Israel was to withdraw its forces across the UN-demarcated Blue Line, the de facto border. But it has missed two deadlines to do so and continues to hold five positions in south Lebanon that it deems "strategic".

In an interview with Lebanese television channel LBCI, Ortagus said that "we continue to press on this government to fully fulfil the cessation of hostilities, and that includes disarming Hezbollah and all militias".

She said it should happen "as soon as possible".

"The sooner that the LAF (army) is able to meet these goals and to disarm all militias in the state, the sooner the Lebanese people can be free... from foreign influence, free from terrorism."

Hezbollah was the only Lebanese armed group that refused to surrender its weapons following a 1975-1990 civil war.

The group has been severely weakened by the latest conflict with Israel however.

Ortagus said she has had "fantastic meetings" in Lebanon.

President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam -- whose appointments this year ended a more than two-year leadership vacuum -- also called their discussions with her on Saturday positive.

They said the talks addressed events in the south as well as economic reforms.

The Lebanese official said Ortagus had "implied" that the reconstruction of war-ravaged areas "requires first achieving reforms and the expansion of state authority".

International creditors have long demanded reforms to unlock bailout funds that could help ease Lebanon's five-year economic crisis, which has been widely blamed on mismanagement and corruption.

Lebanon's finance ministry said Ortagus met Sunday with Finance Minister Yassine Jaber, Economy Minister Amer Bisat and new central bank governor Karim Souaid.

Discussions included "reforms initiated by the government... and the economic reform programme", a ministry statement said.

It added that the bank chief and the two ministers would attend International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington later this month.

Ali Fayyad, a member of Lebanon's parliament for Hezbollah, condemned what he called "flagrant interference in reforms and financial, monetary and administrative matters".

"We don't want reforms tailored to foreign wills and their politics seeking to dominate the country."

Ortagus, during the LBCI interview, said: "If they make the choice to work together and partner with the US government to disarm Hezbollah, to fulfil the cessation of hostilities, to end endemic corruption in this country, we're going to be a wonderful partner and friend."