Israel has carried out a fresh wave of airstrikes across multiple parts of Lebanon, intensifying clashes that threaten to drag the country deeper into regional confrontation. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the Lebanese government has repeatedly urged restraint and will “do everything possible” to press for a halt to the fighting, but acknowledged those efforts have so far failed to stop the violence.
Salam described Lebanon’s diplomacy as an around-the-clock effort, appealing to Arab and European states to help end the hostilities, yet he said those appeals have been undermined by competing interests among potential allies. He painted the conflict as partly a proxy struggle tied to the United States, Israel and Iran, and suggested some Arab partners have been too preoccupied with their own concerns to intervene effectively.
Beirut has sought guarantees from both Hezbollah and Israel aimed at preventing spillover, Salam said, noting that Hezbollah had promised not to intervene in clashes between Israel and Iran, while intermediaries conveyed Israeli assurances that Lebanon would not be targeted if Hezbollah stayed out. Those assurances, he added, repeatedly failed to hold for more than 48 hours, and the only lasting guarantee so far has been limited: Lebanon’s airport and access roads were spared bombardment.
The latest round of escalation followed retaliatory rocket fire by Hezbollah toward northern Israel, which came after U.S. and Israeli strikes said to have targeted Iranian assets. Israel responded with heavy strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon and near Beirut, along with ground operations in the south. Lebanon’s social affairs minister reported that about 517,000 people have registered as displaced through the government relief platform since the beginning of the month, underlining the mounting humanitarian toll.
Salam rejected the notion that disarming Hezbollah is a near-term solution, arguing that the group’s surrender of arms would be a process while an immediate cessation of hostilities is what is required now. His comments reflect Beirut’s limited levers: the Lebanese state cannot easily compel Hezbollah to stand down, yet it must manage the political and humanitarian consequences of a conflict that repeatedly threatens to overwhelm national institutions.
The immediate significance is stark: repeated, short-lived guarantees and reciprocal strikes increase the probability of a prolonged spillover that would magnify civilian suffering and complicate diplomatic efforts to contain the confrontation. For international actors, the dilemma is whether to press harder for credible enforcement mechanisms around any local non‑intervention pledges or to prioritise humanitarian access and de‑escalatory diplomacy that can buy time and space for longer-term arrangements.