Lebanon has begun taking concrete steps to enforce a Cabinet decision that bans the military activities of Hezbollah and confines the group’s role to the political sphere, following the launch of rockets and drones toward the Israeli city of Haifa late Sunday.

The first move came from Government Commissioner to the Military Court, Judge Claude Ghanem, who issued judicial warrants against those responsible for firing rockets toward Haifa around midnight Sunday–Monday. According to the Lebanese news outlet Al-Modon, Ghanem subsequently issued additional warrants targeting individuals involved in both rocket and drone attacks, signaling the judiciary’s intention to hold accountable anyone launching projectiles from Lebanese territory.

Acting on these warrants, Lebanon’s security agencies have launched investigations to identify suspects in preparation for arrests. The process is complicated because those involved are often unidentified and typically fire from locations that are only discovered after the attack. Security and military forces usually arrive at launch sites only after operations have concluded.

The crackdown has extended beyond the judiciary. The Lebanese Army has set up checkpoints along the main highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon, particularly along the Sidon–Tyre road near Zahrani. Soldiers are checking motorists’ identities, with a focus on young men, as part of efforts to enforce the government’s ban on armed activity outside state authority.

Additional checkpoints have been established in the Msayleh area, while inspections have been tightened at the Awali checkpoint in Sidon, considered the first major military point at the administrative entrance to South Lebanon Governorate. Security sources cited by Al-Modon said the Zahrani checkpoint is aimed at verifying the identities of those traveling toward Tyre, which provides access to the western and part of the central southern sectors, while the Msayleh checkpoint covers the remainder of the central sector and the entire eastern sector.

The report also noted that the army has stopped facilitating passage for holders of identification cards issued by Hezbollah’s security committee and has begun intercepting weapons shipments at its checkpoints. When asked why such weapons were not confiscated previously, a security source explained that the army and other agencies act as executive bodies implementing the decisions of Lebanon’s political leadership and government.

Observers say the developments indicate that weapons transport and rocket launches in the past went unchecked because they were effectively shielded by ministerial statements from previous governments. That cover, officials say, no longer exists following President Joseph Aoun’s inaugural address, the ministerial statement of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s government, and Cabinet decisions issued on August 5 and 7. Monday’s decision further reinforced measures to centralize all weapons under state control, including the exclusive authority to make decisions on war and peace.

The Cabinet decision does not apply solely to Hezbollah’s arsenal but to all weapons held outside Lebanese state institutions. Officials say the policy is rooted in the Taif Agreement and United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1559, 1701, and 1680, provisions of which were detailed in the cessation-of-hostilities agreement approved in November 2024 by the government of former Prime Minister Najib Mikati with unanimous ministerial consent.

That agreement stipulates that only the Lebanese Army, Internal Security Forces, General Security, State Security, Customs authorities, and municipal police are authorized to bear arms in Lebanon.

Security and judicial sources told Al-Modon that State institutions are now expected to implement the Cabinet’s decisions in line with the Lebanese Constitution and applicable laws, marking what could be a decisive phase in Beirut’s effort to reassert authority over the use of force.