Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem threatened Israel directly for the first time in months in a televised speech on Tuesday, saying missiles would fall on it if it resumed a broad war on Lebanon.

Naim Kassem’s comments came as Lebanon’s Cabinet was meeting to discuss Hezbollah’s disarmament. Beirut is under U.S. pressure to disarm the group that recently fought a 14-month war with Israel and was left gravely weakened,

The Israeli military on Wednesday said it had struck several Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including weapons depots, rocket launch sites and facilities used to store technical equipment. Lebanese media also reported Israeli airstrikes in the region earlier in the day.

Four Shiite members of Lebanon's Cabinet have withdrawn from a government meeting to protest a plan to disarm Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is sharply criticizing the Lebanese government’s decision to begin a process aiming to disarm the Iran-backed group this year, saying it “fully achieves” neighboring Israel’s interests.

The Lebanese government asked the national army Tuesday to prepare a plan in which only state institutions will have weapons in the small nation by the end of the year, a move that aims to disarm the militant Hezbollah group.