The war nominally ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November calling for Hezbollah and Israeli forces to withdraw from the area south of the Litani River in Lebanon, which would be patrolled by a beefed-up Lebanese army, along with U.N. peacekeepers.

Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun called on Hezbollah and other political parties on Thursday to hand over their weapons to the army, a move the powerful militant group is resisting as Washington ramps up pressures for it to remove its arsenal.