Newsletters
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Friday that rebuilding areas devastated by the latest Israel-Hezbollah war was beyond the government's financial capacity, calling for significant additional funding during a visit to the heavily damaged southern city of Nabatieh.
“I am aware of the magnitude of the crisis,” Salam said, referring to destruction, displacement and the loss of livelihoods.
“But the scale of the needs exceeds the capacities of the Lebanese state and its ability to bear these burdens alone,” he said. “We still need significant funding” for reconstruction.
The latest fighting began in March when Hezbollah attacked Israel, which responded with large-scale airstrikes and a ground invasion.
It followed another conflict that began in 2023 and escalated into an all-out war the following year. Lebanon has put the combined death toll from the conflicts at more than 8,900.
Hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced, mainly from southern Lebanon, while Israel continues to maintain troops in a self-declared security zone extending about 10 kilometers inside Lebanon along the border.
Salam said last month that the total cost of the two wars could exceed $27 billion.
“I am here today to affirm the return to work of state institutions,” Salam said during his visit Friday.
Violence has declined since a ceasefire following a U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding in June. Lebanon and Israel later reached a U.S.-sponsored framework agreement that month.
However, Nabatieh and surrounding areas have continued to face Israeli attacks.
The Israel-Lebanon agreement calls for Hezbollah's disarmament, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the area, beginning in designated “pilot zones.”
Salam said Lebanon needed to mobilize “all the capabilities and support we can to achieve a full Israeli withdrawal” and establish a state with sole authority over decisions of war and peace.
“This is the path to avoid finding ourselves once again facing a new war or new pretexts to attack Lebanon, or a new expansion of the occupation,” he said.
Hezbollah has rejected disarming.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
