US envoy Morgan Ortagus is expected in Beirut on Monday for talks with Lebanese officials on how—and how quickly—the country will move to disarm Hezbollah, according to sources familiar with the visit, as a spate of Israeli airstrikes raises fears of a renewed air campaign. Ortagus, the White House’s deputy Middle East envoy, is slated to join a Wednesday review of the Lebanese army’s work to clear Hezbollah weapons sites in the south, a requirement of the 2024 ceasefire that ended a year of cross-border war.
The trip comes after days of Israeli strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon that Lebanese security sources say killed more than a dozen people, most of them Hezbollah fighters. Israel says the sorties target efforts by the Iran-backed group to rebuild military infrastructure—a claim Hezbollah denies. Another US envoy, Tom Barrack, warned last week that a new confrontation could follow if Beirut does not move faster to remove the group’s arsenal.
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Tensions spiked Sunday when United Nations peacekeepers said they had “neutralized” an Israeli drone that flew over a patrol in south Lebanon “in an aggressive manner.” A source briefed on the incident said an Israeli tank then fired a warning shot near the peacekeepers. Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee countered that the drone was conducting “routine intelligence gathering” and “was not posing a threat,” adding that troops threw a hand grenade in the area but did not fire directly at UN forces.
Also Sunday, Israel said it killed a Hezbollah weapons dealer, identified by Lebanese security sources as Ali al-Musawi, the most senior member of the group reported slain since the ceasefire. Whether Ortagus’ visit shifts the calculus in Beirut—or on the border—will be tested in the coming days.