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The Hezbollah group Saturday urged Pope Leo XIV to reject Israeli "injustice and aggression" against Lebanon, in a message to the pontiff who arrives in Beirut this weekend.Hezbollah emerged heavily weakened from more than a year of hostilities culminating in two months of open war with Israel that began when the group started cross-border attacks against Israel over the Gaza war.A ceasefire a year ago was supposed to end the hostilities but Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, mainly saying it is targeting Hezbollah fighters and sites, and has maintained troops in five southern Lebanon locations it deems strategic.Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, the government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, a move the group has rejected."We in Hezbollah take advantage of the occasion of your auspicious visit to our country Lebanon to reaffirm from our side our commitment to coexistence," read Hezbollah's message to the pope, published on the group's social media channels Saturday.But it also affirmed the group's commitment to "standing with our army and our people to face any aggression and occupation of our land and our country", adding that what Israel "is doing in Lebanon is unacceptable ongoing aggression"."We rely on your holiness's stance in rejecting the injustice and aggression our nation of Lebanon is subjected to at the hands of the Zionist invaders and their supporters," the statement added.In a speech on Friday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem welcomed Leo's upcoming visit to Lebanon, saying he had tasked members of the group with delivering a letter to the pontiff that would also be published in the media.He insisted his group has respected the November 2024 ceasefire and called for an end to persistent Israeli strikes on the country."Do you expect there to be a war later? It's possible at some point, yes, that possibility exists," Qassem said, referring to increased fears in Lebanon of a renewed, broader war.After visiting Turkiye, Leo is due to arrive in Lebanon today for a three-day trip that includes an open-air mass at Beirut's waterfront which organisers expect to draw 120,000 people, as well as an interreligious meeting in the city centre.Qassem said Friday that "we welcome this visit at this pivotal moment, and we pray that the Holy Father will contribute to spreading peace in Lebanon, liberating it, ending the (Israeli) aggression, and standing by it and by the oppressed, as we have always known him to do". 

The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in several south Lebanon towns Wednesday, and accused the group of rebuilding its capabilities close to the border. The Israeli military has kept up frequent air strikes in Lebanon in spite of a ceasefire sealed last November that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah.The latest raids came a day after 13 people were killed in a strike that Israel said had targeted Hamas members in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon — the deadliest attack since the truce came into effect. Israel's military said Wednesday that it had struck "several weapons storage facilities belonging to Hezbollah's rocket unit in southern Lebanon", calling such sites "a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon". It had previously warned residents to evacuate the area around sites in the southern Lebanese towns of Deir Kifa, Shehur, Ainata and Tayr Felsay.Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) later said raids hit all four locations. In Deir Kifa, Lebanese soldiers deployed near the targeted building, which collapsed after the strike, an AFP correspondent saw. An AFP journalist in Tayr Felsay saw fireballs and smoke erupt after the raid there. In its evacuation warnings on X, the Israeli military had said it would strike Hezbollah "military infrastructure... in response to Hezbollah's prohibited attempts to rebuild its activities in the area".In a subsequent statement, the military singled out the town of Beit Lif, just a few kilometres from the Israeli border. It accused Hezbollah of rebuilding "dozens of fighter infrastructure sites in the area of the village, including headquarters and weapons storage facilities", some inside civilian homes.Lebanon says Israel is violating the truce with its strikes, and by maintaining troops in five areas of the country's south. Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli attacks, Lebanon has committed to disarming Hezbollah, but the fighter group has rejected the idea of handing over its weapons.Earlier Wednesday, Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed and 11 others wounded in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in south Lebanon's Tiri that Israel said killed a Hezbollah fighters. The NNA reported that the man killed worked for the local municipality, and said the strike took place as a university bus carrying students passed by, wounding some on board. On Tuesday, Israel said it struck a Hamas training compound in south Lebanon's Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp. The Palestinian fighter group denied it had military installations in Lebanon's refugee camps and called Israel's claims "lies".

Lebanon's health ministry said on Sunday that Israeli strikes on the country's south and east had killed three people, despite an ongoing ceasefire deal, as Israel claimed it had targeted two members of Iran-backed Hezbollah.Officials said one person had been killed in an "Israeli enemy strike" on a car in Naqoura, in Tyre province, while another strike on a vehicle in Nabi Sheet, in the country's eastern Baalbek region, resulted in another fatality.Later, the health ministry said a further strike on the town of al-Hafir, also in the Baalbek area, resulted in the death of a Syrian national and an injury to another Syrian.Despite a nearly year-long ceasefire, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon, often saying it is targeting Hezbollah positions.In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli army said it had killed Ali Hussein al-Mousawi in eastern Lebanon, describing him as "a weapons dealer and smuggler on behalf of Hezbollah".The Israeli military said it had also killed a local Hezbollah representative it identified as Abd Mahmoud al-Sayed, in southern Lebanon.Israel has intensified strikes in recent weeks, with several deadly attacks launched over the past few days.Last week, a United Nations special rapporteur told AFP that deadly Israeli strikes on ostensibly civilian vehicles in Lebanon could amount to war crimes, despite Israel's assertion they targeted Hezbollah members.As part of last year's ceasefire deal, Israeli troops were to withdraw from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani River and dismantle any military infrastructure in the south.Under US pressure and fearing an escalation of Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government has moved to begin disarming Hezbollah, a plan the movement and its allies oppose.Despite the terms of the truce, Israel has kept troops deployed in five border points it deems strategic.