Israel says Hezbollah tried to rebuild arms site in Choueifat despite army inspection

The Israeli army claimed Wednesday that Hezbollah tried to rebuild an “arms production site” in Choueifat after the war and that it concealed engineering vehicles during a Lebanese Army inspection visit.

“This is how Hezbollah is trying to rebuild a production site in the southern suburbs, concealing its activity from the monitoring mechanism and lying to the Lebanese people: During a surprise inspection, the engineering vehicles disappeared and returned to work after it was completed, in violation of the ceasefire agreement,” Israeli army Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X, while also publishing “before and after” pictures.

“The IDF (Israeli army) reveals that in recent months, Hezbollah has been trying to rebuild an underground weapons production site in the heart of the Choueifat neighborhood in the southern suburbs, which was established near a school and under residential buildings, after it was targeted in November 2024,” Adraee said.

He clarified that “information about these attempts was transferred to the monitoring mechanism in early January, and accordingly it was decided to conduct a surprise inspection of the site.”

“However, aerial photographs showed that Hezbollah, which had been informed in advance of the date of the inspection, had evacuated the engineering vehicles that had been operating at the site on the day the inspection was conducted, and then returned them after it had ended,” Adraee added.

He warned that “this dangerous activity constitutes a flagrant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon under the ceasefire agreement,” adding that the Israeli army “remains committed to the continued implementation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and will continue to act to remove any threat to the State of Israel and prevent any attempt by the terrorist Hezbollah to position itself.”