BEIRUT (Dispatches) -- At least four people were martyred and three others wounded in southern Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike targeted a car in the Nabatieh district, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health. 
The strike, carried out with a guided missile, came amid ongoing Israeli incursions into Lebanese territory, exposing the fragility of the nearly year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The attack, which coincided with President Joseph Aoun’s call for renewed negotiations with Israel, underscores the persistent threat posed by Israeli military operations in Lebanon. 
Despite the ceasefire brokered by the United States in November 2024, Israel has maintained troops in multiple southern districts and continues near-daily air raids, killing civilians, journalists, and first responders. United Nations figures indicate that at least 111 Lebanese civilians have died since the truce went into effect.
Lebanon’s leadership finds itself squeezed between Israeli aggression and U.S.-backed pressure to dismantle Hezbollah, the only effective force capable of resisting Israel’s repeated violations. 
U.S. envoy Tom Barrack, speaking at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, openly urged Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah, offering Persian Gulf-state investment of up to $10 billion to develop southern Lebanon if the movement surrendered its arms. 
Barrack framed this as an incentive rather than a mandate, but the message was clear: the U.S. and Israel are seeking to neuter Lebanon’s primary defense against ongoing occupation.
The stakes are stark. Hezbollah, with 40,000 fighters and tens of thousands of rockets, operates in a country where the Lebanese Armed Forces are poorly funded and under-resourced. 
For most Lebanese, Hezbollah is a deeply embedded resistance movement, providing protection and essential services in the face of Israeli occupation.
Attempts to forcibly disarm Hezbollah risk catastrophic instability. Lebanon is already struggling under political paralysis and economic collapse, and the idea of stripping a widely supported resistance group of its weapons would almost certainly ignite internal conflict. 
Hezbollah remains the only credible bulwark against Israeli expansionism and aggression, and popular support for the movement among Lebanese civilians underscores its legitimacy as a defender of the nation.
As Israel threatens to intensify its attacks and U.S. diplomats push Lebanon to comply with disarmament demands, the region faces a stark reality: the survival of Lebanon’s sovereignty depends on Hezbollah’s ability to resist, even as international powers attempt to curtail it. 
The civilian casualties mounting in southern Lebanon are a stark reminder that Israeli aggression continues, enabled by American political and financial backing, while the world watches a nation’s right to self-defense under siege.