Lebanon’s army has blown up so many Hezbollah arms caches that it has run out of explosives, as it races to meet a year-end deadline to disarm the Iran-backed Shi’ite terrorist group in the south of the country under a ceasefire agreed with Israel, two sources told Reuters.

The explosives shortage, which has not been previously reported, has not stopped the army quickening the pace of inspection missions to search for hidden weapons in the south, near Israel, the two said, one of whom is a security source and the other a Lebanese official.

It would have been unimaginable for Lebanon’s military to embark on such a task at the zenith of Hezbollah‘s power just a few years ago, and many observers were skeptical even after the ceasefire agreement.

But Hezbollah was hit hard by Israel’s war last year, which killed thousands of fighters and the upper echelons of both the military and political wings, including leader Hassan Nasrallah. The war also killed more than 1,100 women and children and destroyed swathes of Lebanon’s south and east.

The US has kept up pressure on Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah, which is designated a terrorist group by Washington. President Donald Trump’s deputy Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus is in Beirut this week to discuss momentum on disarmament with Lebanese officials.

As they wait for US deliveries of explosives charges and other military equipment, Lebanese troops are now sealing off sites they find instead of destroying them, said one of the sources and two other people briefed on the army‘s recent activities.

Their searches yielded nine new arms caches in September, the two other briefed officials said. The security source said dozens of tunnels used by Hezbollah had also been sealed and more soldiers were being steadily recruited to deploy to the south.

Reuters spoke to 10 people including Lebanese officials, security sources, diplomats, and a Hezbollah official, all of whom said the army expects to complete its sweep of the south by the year’s end.

Meeting the deadline would be a considerable feat for an institution once unable or unwilling to stop Hezbollah rebuilding a military presence near Israel after a previous war in 2006 – and for a country in which Hezbollah was once the dominant political force.

ARMY STEPS CAUTIOUSLY ELSEWHERE IN LEBANON

Progress in the rest of the country looks far less certain.

Despite its advances, the army wants to avoid inflaming tensions and to buy time for Lebanon’s politicians to reach a consensus about the group’s arsenal in other parts of the country, a second Lebanese official who is close to Hezbollah and two security sources said.

It has not published images of the work destroying weapons caches, or even said the weapons belong to Hezbollah.

Under the November 2024 ceasefire that ended more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon agreed that only state security forces should bear arms in the country. That would mean fully disarming Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has publicly committed to the ceasefire but is not a formal signatory. It insists the disarmament as mentioned in the text only applies only to the south of Lebanon.

On Sept. 5, the cabinet adopted a more detailed five-phase plan for imposing the state monopoly on arms – starting in the south and gradually moving north and east, the security sources and the second Lebanese official said.

The army said it would clear the south by December, without committing to a timeline for the rest of the country. The government has said the plan is contingent on Israel halting air strikes that have continued despite the ceasefire. All the sources said the army would have to navigate treacherous political terrain to achieve full disarmament.

Ed Gabriel, who heads Washington-based non-profit the American Task Force Lebanon and met with Lebanon’s military and political leaders in October, said the army‘s cautious approach reflected the possibility of civilian strife if it moved too fast outside of the south.

“It’s a Lebanese answer to disarmament,” he said.

Hezbollah has not opposed the seizures of unmanned weapons caches in the south and has not fired on Israel since the November truce. However, it has publicly refused to relinquish its weapons elsewhere, hinting conflict was possible if the state moved against the Islamist group.

Moving north and east without a political consensus risks confrontation with Hezbollah fighters or street protests by Lebanon’s Shi’ite community, among whom Hezbollah remains popular, the two security sources and the second Lebanese official said.

In a written statement to Reuters, Hezbollah‘s media office said the ceasefire meant Lebanon’s army was fully responsible for the zone south of the Litani River, referring to the water body that crosses southern Lebanon near Israel.

But any disarmament efforts north of the river would require political consensus, it said.

“The rest – that depends on a political settlement, which we don’t yet have. The army is betting on time,” said a Lebanese official close to the group.

The army still fears a stand-off with Hezbollah‘s constituency could again fracture the army, which split during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war, one Lebanese official told Reuters.

In a speech on Sunday, Hezbollah secretary general Naim Qassem described the army‘s approach as good and balanced but also issued a warning, saying he hoped the army was not considering clashing with the Shi’ite community.

The media offices of the Lebanese army, cabinet, and presidency did not respond to questions from Reuters for this story. The Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment.

MULTIPLE WEAPONS CACHES FOUND AND DESTROYED

The army does not possess its own information on where Hezbollah‘s stockpiles are located, two security sources told Reuters. It has relied on intelligence supplied by Israel to “the Mechanism,” the sources said, referring to a committee established by the truce deal, chaired by the US and including France, Israel, Lebanon, and UN peacekeepers.

In late May, the army was receiving so many reports from the Mechanism that it could not keep pace with the requests for inspections, the two sources said.

If troops found a depot, they kept any ammunition or new equipment compatible with their own arms and destroyed rockets, launchers, and other material, the two sources said.

Operations in the south by the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL yielded tunnels dozens of meters long and unexploded ordnance, according to UNIFIL statements.

The army depleted its explosives stocks by June. In August, six army troops were killed trying to dismantle an arms depot. Reuters could not determine additional details of the circumstances of the accident.

The US is keen to help: in September, it announced $14 million in demolition charges and other aid to help Lebanese troops “degrade Hezbollah” and approved $192 million aid to the army the day before the US government shutdown.

The US also approved $192 million aid to the Lebanese army the day before the US government shutdown.

US Senator Jeanne Shaheen advocated for the aid after a visit to south Lebanon in August left her impressed with the army‘s efforts and convinced it needed more support, an aide in her office told Reuters.

It could still take months for the detonation charges to be delivered Lebanon, a source familiar with the process said.

WILL THEY, WON’T THEY

In recent months, Hezbollah‘s position about the future of its weapons has appeared fluid. In public statements, the group warned the state against trying to seize its arsenal – but also said it would be willing to discuss the fate of its arms if Israel commits to a real ceasefire.

In private, some representatives of the group have floated the possibility that progress could be made elsewhere if reconstruction allowed Shi’ite constituents to return to villages and towns destroyed in the war, the Lebanese official close to the group said. Others have flatly rejected decommissioning its weapons under any circumstances.

The group is still conducting internal discussions on the future of its arsenal and is also playing for time, the Lebanese official close to Hezbollah and a Lebanese political source said.

In its written statement, Hezbollah said the status of its weapons depended on an end to the Israeli aggression, its withdrawal from the occupied Lebanese territories, the return of prisoners, and ensuring reconstruction.

NEXT STEPS POSE CHALLENGE

The security sources say that a lack of information makes it difficult for the army to estimate what exactly Hezbollah has stored, and where, including in the eastern Bekaa – a vast plain where Hezbollah is thought to store the bulk of its long-range missiles and other strategic arms.

Israel provided some reports of weapons in areas north of the Litani but the army deemed them too sensitive to act on without a consensus on whether and how to disarm Hezbollah there, one of the security sources and one of the diplomats based in Lebanon said

Despite providing intelligence on weapons locations, Israel is proving another obstacle in the south, the officials briefed on the cabinet meeting said.

Several soldiers have been wounded by Israeli fire while on inspection missions, the two security sources said. Israeli drones have dropped grenades near soldiers and UN peacekeepers in the south, UNIFIL has said.

The army has also warned that Israel’s occupation of five hilltops within Lebanon near the border with Israel could delay a full sweep of the area, the two security sources said.

And when Lebanese troops tried to erect a rudimentary watch-tower to monitor the border, Israel objected, the two security sources said. The tower remains unmanned.

The Israeli military did not respond to questions about the wounded Lebanese troops and the abandoned watchtower.

Washington is keen to see Lebanon expedite disarmament in the rest of the country after meeting the year-end deadline for the south, the congressional aide said. US envoy Tom Barrack has warned of possible Israeli action if that deadline is not met.

“The US sees that Lebanon needs to do more, and faster,” Gabriel said.

The United States fully supports Lebanon’s “courageous and historic decision to disarm Hezbollah,” a US State Department spokesperson said in response to Reuters questions.

“The region and the world are watching carefully,” the spokesperson said.

Israeli planes launched strikes on Gaza City on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the terrorist group Hamas of violating a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory and ordered the military to carry out “powerful attacks.”

Witnesses and Hamas media said the Israeli strikes targeted an area close to Shifa hospital, which has been an operational hub for Hamas terrorist activity. There was no word yet on any casualties.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes, which were the latest violence in a fragile three-week-old ceasefire and which followed a statement by Netanyahu‘s office saying he had ordered immediate attacks.

The statement did not give a specific reason for the attacks, but an Israeli military official said Hamas had violated the ceasefire by carrying out an attack against Israeli forces in an area of the enclave that is under Israeli control.

“This is yet another blatant violation of the ceasefire,” the official said.

The US-backed ceasefire agreement went into effect on Oct. 10, halting two years of war that was triggered by deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and that has devastated the narrow coastal strip.

Both sides have accused each other of violations.

On Saturday, Israel said its forces carried out a “targeted strike” on a person in central Gaza who was planning to attack Israeli troops.

NETANYAHU ACCUSES HAMAS OF VIOLATING CEASEFIRE

Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire by turning over some wrong remains in a process of returning the bodies of hostages to Israel.

Netanyahu said the remains handed over on Monday belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, an Israeli killed during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Tzarfati’s remains had already been partially retrieved by Israeli troops during the war.

Hamas initially said in response to this that it would hand over to Israel on Tuesday the body of a missing hostage found in a tunnel in Gaza. However, Hamas’s armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, said later it would postpone the planned handover, citing what it said were Israel’s violations of the ceasefire.

Israeli media earlier reported an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the reports.

Under the ceasefire terms, Hamas released all living hostages in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian convicts and wartime detainees, while Israel pulled back its troops and halted its offensive.

SEARCH FOR HOSTAGE BODIES

Hamas has also agreed to hand over the remains of all dead hostages yet to be recovered, but has said that it will take time to locate and retrieve the bodies amid Gaza‘s ruins. Israel says the terrorist group can access the remains of most of the hostages.

The issue has become one of the main sticking points in the ceasefire, which US President Donald Trump says he is watching closely.

The search for hostage bodies stepped up over the past few days after the arrival of heavy machinery from Egypt. Bulldozers were working in Khan Younis on Tuesday, in the southern Gaza Strip, and further north in Nuseirat, as Hamas fighters deployed around them.

Some of the bodies are believed to be in Hamas’s network of tunnels running below Gaza.

Witnesses in Khan Younis said the Egyptian teams, working with armed Hamas fighters, were digging deep near the Qatari-funded Hamad Housing City in the western side of Khan Younis, reaching tunnel shafts.

Reuters images showed an excavation a dozen or so meters below the surface, with Hamas men at the bottom of the trench next to a tunnel opening in an apparent search for bodies inside.

Israel launched the war after Hamas-led fighters stormed through southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and bringing 251 hostages back to Gaza.

Israel is a model for Taiwan to learn from in strengthening its defenses, President Lai Ching-te said in remarks released on Tuesday, citing the Biblical story of David versus Goliath on the need to stand up to authoritarianism.

Taiwan has been a strong backer of Israel since the 2023 Hamas-led attack on that country which triggered the war in Gaza, though Israel, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic relations with Taipei.

Attending a Monday night dinner in Taiwan of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Lai, who has also been seeking to win support from the White House, said that Jewish people have suffered constant persecution over their history.

“The Taiwanese people often look to the example of the Jewish people when facing challenges to our international standing and threats to our sovereignty from China. The people of Taiwan have never become discouraged,” he said, in comments his office released on Tuesday.

‘VALUABLE MODEL FOR TAIWAN‘

Appeasement has never been the way to stop authoritarian governments, and the concept of peace through strength is a maxim that Israeli, US, and Taiwanese societies have had for years, Lai added.

“Israel‘s determination and capacity to defend its territory provides a valuable model for Taiwan. I have always believed that Taiwan needs to channel the spirit of David against Goliath in standing up to authoritarian coercion.”

Taiwan has a de facto embassy in Tel Aviv, while Israel has a similar representative office in Taipei. There is no similar arrangement between Taiwan and the Palestinians, with whom China has a close relationship. China recognized a Palestinian state in 1988.

Lai earlier this month announced a new multi-layered air defense system called “T-Dome” to defend itself against a possible future attack by Beijing, which claims the democratically governed island as its own territory.

Lai told the dinner that T-Dome had been inspired by Israel‘s Iron Dome missile defense system, as well as US President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense shield.

“I believe that trilateral Taiwan-US-Israel cooperation can help achieve regional peace, stability, and prosperity,” he said.

Lai and his government reject Beijing’s territorial claims. Foreign minister Lin Chia-lung said on Tuesday he was not worried that US President Donald Trump, who is touring Asia, would “abandon” the island.