Israel threatened to step up military strikes against Hezbollah and a senior U.S. envoy warned Beirut that time was running out to disarm the Iranian-backed Lebanese faction.

An almost year-old ceasefire between the Middle East neighbours calmed what had been a second front to Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas, the Palestinian ally of Iran. The Nov. 27 deal, mediated by Washington, required that the Lebanese government and its army remove Hezbollah from areas near the Israeli border, and strip it of weaponry.

Hezbollah has refused to give up its arsenal freely, though, and Israel — citing a self-defence provision in the ceasefire deal — has carried out scores of lethal airstrikes, mostly in southern Lebanon, against what it describes as Hezbollah’s efforts to regroup. Those attacks have

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