Lebanon

Beirut, Lebanon – Anger in Lebanon is growing after the government of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced increases in petrol taxes and value-added taxes (VATs) last week.

The rises in what economists and analysts have called “regressive” taxes led to two protests on February 17 and an array of criticism against the government, including from media and voices that had previously been friendly to Salam’s reformist administration.

“The government lost its mind,” Megaphone News, an independent, progressive news outlet published on a social media account in response to Salam’s government announcing a 300,000 Lebanese pound ($3.35) price increase on 20 litres (about 5.3 gallons) of petrol or gasoline and a one percent increase from 11 to 12 percent on VAT – a consumption tax charged on goods and services at each stage of production.

On the morning of February 17, a handful of taxi drivers blocked the Ring Bridge in downtown Beirut to protest the rise in taxes. Later that evening, in Riad al-Solh Square, around 50 or so protesters gathered to express their discontent with the government’s decision.

“You have no housing, you have no loans, you have no safety, I mean, you live here in a prison, brother,” one angry protester told Lebanese television station Al Jadeed from the Ring Bridge protest.

His comments represent the frustration felt by many Lebanese – that the tax increases are yet another indignity the population must live through, including near-daily Israeli attacks and violations of the 2024 ceasefire, collapsing buildings in the north, and an ongoing economic crisis since 2019.

Salam doubles down

The last time a tax spike sent Lebanese people to the streets was in 2019. Anger in Lebanon had boiled after decades of economic and political mismanagement by the government. Then, as the country’s economy started collapsing, the government tried to implement a series of taxes, including on WhatsApp calls.

The response was widespread protests that collapsed the government, led at the time by then-Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. But they failed to dislodge the wider sectarian system that many activists and experts say plagues Lebanon and prevents reform.

Last week’s protests were on a far smaller scale than 2019, however.

Then, protesters forced the government to walk back the taxes. But Salam, the prime minister, defended the tax hike on Friday. The government’s argument is that the taxes are necessary to pay salaries and pensions for state employees and retirees.

“We had to find a quick source to fund the raises,” he said. “These are exceptional measures… but the government wants to reform the tax system, not just impose new taxes.”

Salam also said that his government inherited a “very difficult” financial situation and promised that he would rebuild trust between the state and the people by working to establish a fair tax system.

Lebanon’s Finance Minister Yassine Jaber said the fuel price increase would take effect immediately, but that VAT increases would need parliament’s approval.

“More than 50 per cent of the budget today is allocated to salaries, and it was necessary to take steps to secure the funds,” he said.

VAT is a regressive tax

But not everyone agreed with the decision, including some ministers themselves. The right-wing Lebanese Forces bloc – which is part of the government coalition – voiced objection to the tax increase, calling for a study of the impacts.

Analysts, meanwhile, were heavily critical of the tax increase. They said that the rise of petrol prices and VAT would punish the country’s most vulnerable and would further widen the gap between rich and poor in Lebanon.

“The people who are most affected by value-added taxes are usually the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable, given the type of their consumption, which is mostly filled of the goods and the services that are affected by taxation, and whereby the proportion of the taxation is significant,” Farah al-Shami, senior fellow and programme director for Social Protection at the Arab Reform Initiative, told Al Jazeera. “VAT is by nature the most regressive type of taxation. Studies have shown that it affects the full supply chain, meaning everything that goes into the production, for example, of a certain good is affected.”

A price increase at every step of the supply chain means that prices compound to end up being more expensive for consumers.

In 2019, decades of government mismanagement of the economy ended in the collapse of the banking sector and the depreciation of the Lebanese pound by over 90 percent. Before 2019, $1 was equivalent to 1,500 Lebanese pounds, whereas now $1 is valued at nearly 89,500 Lebanese pounds.

Many lost their life savings with the currency freefall. Banks quickly shut their doors and limited withdrawals. More than six years later, many Lebanese have not recovered, nor has the economy.

Scandalous undertaxing

The high cost of living is a regular talking point among Lebanese, particularly in the capital, Beirut. Many are struggling to make ends meet and rely on the $5.8bn in remittances from family or contacts abroad (these are 2024 figures).

With so many struggling, a tax increase that impacts the entire population is a recipe for anger. And analysts said that if the government is in need of tax revenue, there are plenty of undertaxed sources to draw from.

“Property in Lebanon remains scandalously undertaxed,” Dania Arayssi, a senior analyst at New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy Luxury, told Al Jazeera. “Real estate in Beirut — some of the most expensive per square metre in the region — generates a fraction of the public revenue it could and should. Capital gains on property are minimal. Wealth held in land and assets is effectively sheltered. Similarly, luxury goods face no meaningful additional burden.”

Fouad Debs, a lawyer and member of the Depositors Union, a group founded after the 2019 banking crisis to protect the rights of depositors, said the decision went against the government’s stated goals of reform.

“All of this is to keep the [current] system intact and save the banks, instead of having them also pay the taxes that they should pay,” Debs said.

Tripoli, Lebanon – Hossam Hazrouni points underneath a concrete staircase to the exposed foundation of the building where he lives.

“Inside, there, look,” the 65-year-old says. “The interior pillars are all broken. It’s covered in water. Everything inside is wet.”

A few metres away lies a pile of smashed concrete blocks and twisted metal. It is the rubble of a building that collapsed on February 8, killing at least 15 people.

In Tripoli, collapsed buildings are fast becoming common. This is the fourth building to collapse this winter alone. Today, hundreds of buildings are at risk of collapse due to a lethal combination of ageing infrastructure, unregulated construction, Lebanon’s 2019 economic crisis, the 2023 earthquake that fractured much of the local infrastructure’s foundation, and a relatively heavy rain season.

Locals like Hazrouni are afraid their buildings will be next.

“They told us that you should evacuate and you shouldn’t stay, but how are we supposed to leave when we are in a bad situation?” he asked, raising his palms to the sky. “Where are we supposed to go?”

Collapsing structures

In the 1950s, Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city and the largest in the country’s north, was a hub for trade and shipping in the region. But in the intervening years, its status has fallen to become one of the poorest cities on the Mediterranean Sea.

It is also a city of massive disparity. Multiple billionaires live in Tripoli, including the former Prime Minister Najib Mikati and former Minister of Finance Mohammad Safadi, while about 45 percent of the city’s population lives in poverty, according to a 2024 World Bank report.

Over the years, most of Tripoli’s middle- and upper-class residents have moved to the southern edge of the city, leaving behind its impoverished classes to inhabit the decaying old city. Many of the poor know their concrete buildings are ageing and in poor condition, but have little means to fix them.

“The first problem is that the structures are old,” Fayssal al-Baccar, an engineer, told Al Jazeera from a restaurant in southern Tripoli. Al-Baccar is also the founder of the Tripoli Emergency Fund, a private initiative started in response to the collapsing building issue that has been fundraising to help the city.

“The lifespan of concrete is between 50 to 80 years,” al-Baccar explained, and in many of the buildings in central Tripoli, that lifespan is coming to an end. On a sheet of white paper with a blue pen, he drew a model of a building’s foundation.

“Through time, the pH [level] of the concrete will become more and more acidic,” he said, sketching lines around the base of his drawn wall. “Then it will corrode the steel – the steel will self-destruct – and the building will collapse.”

The issue has been exacerbated by a few incidents in particular. When a 2023 earthquake devastated northern Syria and southern Turkiye, it was widely felt in Tripoli as well. Local officials say that it damaged much of the infrastructural foundations of older buildings, many of which have had irregular or unregulated floors added to them, making them weaker. The area has also suffered from neglect and a lack of infrastructure for years, even before the 2019 economic and banking crisis.

Lastly, there is the issue of water damage. This year, Lebanon has received more rainfall than in the last couple of years. And in the days leading up to the collapsed building on February 8, it rained multiple times. “Water is infiltrating into the concrete and is also making the steel worse,” al-Baccar said.

That is why al-Baccar has recruited whom he described as some of the city’s “best and most successful” to help fill governmental gaps.

One of those people is Sarah al-Charif, the Tripoli Emergency Fund’s spokesperson and fundraising committee member. She is also the Lebanon director for Ruwwad Al Tanmeya, a nonprofit focused on youth and disenfranchised communities, and was appointed vice president of Tripoli’s Port Authority last year.

“You’re talking about areas where most, if not all, of the buildings are old and dilapidated, some of which are actually on the verge of collapse,” al-Charif said from her office at Ruwwad Al Tanmeya’s office in Bab al-Tabbaneh, less than a kilometre (0.62 miles) away from where the building collapsed on February 8.

“The fact that the problem is so big reflects decades of accumulated neglect by a state that hasn’t fulfilled its obligations towards this city,” she said.

Al-Charif said she doesn’t hold the current government – which took office a year ago – responsible, but that historically, “people who were in positions of power didn’t do anything, they weren’t fulfilling their duties”.

“There’s also a part that falls on the landlord, a part that falls on the tenant, and a part that falls on the merchants who are the builders. Maybe they’re using substandard materials,” she said. “So everyone has to take their share of the responsibility.”

Historical neglect

Standing on the street, Wissam Kafrouni, 70, points to the top floor of a building just a few doors down from the structure that collapsed on February 8. A crack runs zig-zagging down the building’s side, in the pattern of descending stairs. His nephew rents the top-floor apartment, he says, but the landlord is claiming that repairs are the responsibility of the tenant.

Locals in this neighbourhood say that many officials have visited the site in recent days, including Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. They also say that they’ve been told for years that the local municipality has plans to fix the infrastructure, but that little has come about from it.

The local government has known about the issue for years, but until now, little has been done. Deputy Mayor Khaled Kabbara is part of a new municipal government elected in 2025.

“The issue of cracked buildings is a very old issue in the city of Tripoli, and unfortunately, it has not been dealt with in previous periods,” he told Al Jazeera from Tripoli’s municipality headquarters. But this new municipal government that was elected in 2025, he said, has “raised its voice”.

Kabbara also said that Tripoli has been historically ignored by Beirut “since independence” in the 1940s, but that the current government was working with the local government to find solutions.

“Honestly, this is the first time that we feel that someone is listening and there is someone who is working with us,” he said.

A group of engineers are currently inspecting buildings around the city to decide if damaged buildings can be repaired or must be evacuated and demolished. Evacuation warnings have been issued for 114 buildings, though that number is expected to rise substantially.

Families that evacuate should receive a one-year shelter allowance to secure alternative housing. Religious institutions have opened their doors to evacuees, while Turkiye has also promised to donate about 100 prefabricated houses.

A call centre has also been set up for residents to report suspected issues with their buildings. The hotline has so far received reports on approximately 650 different buildings, Kabbara said.

One of the buildings previously reported to the call centre was the building that collapsed on February 8. Locals had heard a creaking sound coming from the building.

Kabbara acknowledged that the report was received and that the residents were afraid. However, he said, the engineers had not inspected it before it collapsed because nothing in the report indicated it needed an urgent inspection.

What comes next?

Back in Bab al-Tabbaneh, numerous locals expressed frustration and fear. They said many officials and associations have visited the site, but few have delivered on promises to help them.

“We’ve been told there is a plan to fix the infrastructure since the Siniora government,” Samir Rajab, 56, said, referring to Fouad Siniora, the prime minister of Lebanon from 2005 to 2009. “But nothing happens.”

Next to the destroyed building site, Mustapha al-Abed, 54, repaired a broken washing machine out of a small workshop. He said his work was not very fruitful lately, as poverty forced many in this area with broken appliances to wash their laundry by hand.

He looked over at the site where the building had gone down just days earlier. “The problem is not here any more. These people are already dead,” he said. He then pointed across the street to a bustling neighbourhood, where people were doing their Ramadan shopping.

“The problem is all the other buildings.”

Lebanese authorities say Israeli forces bombed a vehicle near the border, killing at least four people.

Israeli forces have bombed a vehicle near Lebanon’s border with Syria, killing at least four people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

The Israeli air strike took place early on Monday morning, it said in a statement.

Lebanon’s National News Agency said one of the victims was a Syrian national named Khaled Mohammad al-Ahmad.

The Israeli military confirmed the air strike, claiming in a post on X that it targeted members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Lebanon. It did not provide evidence for its claim.

The Israeli military said the raid took place in the Majdal Anjar area of Lebanon.

There was no immediate comment from the PIJ.

The PIJ is an armed group in the occupied Palestinian territory, fighting alongside Hamas in Gaza for the establishment of a Palestinian state. It is also an ally of the Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah, which launched attacks on northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinians after the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in 2023.

Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire in November 2024, but the Israeli military has continued to carry out near-daily attacks on Lebanon, in violation of the United States-brokered truce.

According to the United Nations, the Israeli military launched more than 10,000 air and ground attacks in the year since it agreed to halt hostilities.

The UN’s rights office said in November last year that it verified at least 108 civilian casualties from Israeli attacks since the ceasefire, including at least 21 women and 16 children.

At least 11 Lebanese civilians were also abducted by Israeli forces during that time period, the office said.

Lebanon filed a complaint with the UN last month about the repeated Israeli violations, urging the UN Security Council to push Israel to end its attacks and fully withdraw from the country.

The complaint said Israel violated Lebanon’s sovereignty at least 2,036 times in the last three months of 2025 alone.

Israel also continues to occupy five areas in Lebanese territory, blocking the reconstruction of destroyed border villages and preventing tens of thousands of displaced people from returning to their homes.

Medical sources say Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in southern Khan Younis and four in northern al-Faluja.

Israeli forces have killed at least nine Palestinians in new attacks across Gaza, in yet another violation of the United States-brokered “ceasefire” in October, according to medical sources.

The attacks on Sunday came as the Israeli military launched several attacks on southern Lebanon, targeting what it called warehouses used by the Hezbollah armed group.

In Gaza, a source at the Nasser Hospital told Al Jazeera Israeli forces killed at least five Palestinians in the southern city of Khan Younis.

The attack took place beyond the so-called “yellow line”, where Israeli troops are stationed in Gaza, the source added.

The other four Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces attacked a tent for displaced people in the al-Faluja area of northern Gaza, a source at al-Shifa Hospital said.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

The Israeli military, however, said in a statement early on Sunday that it struck a building in an unspecified part of northern Gaza shortly after several armed fighters entered the structure.

At least two of the fighters were killed, it said.

The Israeli military also said it killed another person in Gaza on Sunday who allegedly crossed the yellow line and posed “an immediate threat” to its forces there.

It did not provide evidence for its claims.

In Lebanon, the Israeli military said it struck warehouses used by Hezbollah for storing weapons and launchers in the southern parts of the country.

The Israeli military and Hezbollah, which began attacks on northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza in 2023, agreed to a ceasefire in November 2024.

There was no immediate comment from Lebanon on Sunday’s attacks.

According to authorities in Gaza and Lebanon, the Israeli military continues to launch near-daily attacks despite agreeing to halt the fighting.

In Gaza, Israel has violated the US-brokered “ceasefire” more than 1,500 times since it came into effect on October 10. At least 591 people have been killed and 1,590 wounded since then.

In addition to the near-daily killing of Palestinians, Israel also severely restricts quantities of food, medicine, medical supplies, shelter materials and prefabricated houses from entering Gaza, where some 2 million Palestinians – including 1.5 million displaced – live in catastrophic conditions.

Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza on October 8, 2023, with support from the US, killing 72,032 people, wounding some 171,661, and destroying 90 percent of the territory’s infrastructure.

The United Nations estimates it could cost more than $70bn to rebuild Gaza.

In Lebanon, the Israeli military launched more than 10,000 air and ground attacks in the year since it agreed to halt hostilities, according to the UN.

The organisation’s rights office said in November last year that it verified at least 108 civilian casualties from Israeli attacks since the ceasefire, including at least 21 women and 16 children.

At least 11 Lebanese civilians were also abducted by Israeli forces during that time period, the office said.

Beirut, Lebanon – The Lebanese and Syrian governments have reached a deal to repatriate about 300 Syrian inmates in Lebanese prisons back to their home country in a move that could pave the way for better relations between the two neighbours.

The issue of Syrian prisoners in Lebanon has been a priority for Damascus since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024. Relations between the two countries have long been marked by what many Lebanese describe as nearly 30 years of occupation and a tutelage rule by Syria over Lebanon, which ended when Syria withdrew its troops in 2005.

About 2,400 Syrian prisoners are currently in Lebanese prisons. Some are held on “terrorism” charges while others are held for links to attacks against the Lebanese army. But most have never been tried despite having spent years in jail, largely due to a myriad of issues, including political gridlock, judicial strikes and general political indifference.

And while the deal reached on Friday may signal the beginning of a new relationship between Syria and Lebanon – one built on mutual respect rather than Syria’s direct or indirect control of the smaller state on its western border – it did not come about without any public controversy.

In Syrian eyes, many of the prisoners are being held for political rather than judicial reasons. The government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa believes they are in prison mostly due to the influence of the former al-Assad regime and its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.

But for many Lebanese, anyone accused of attacks against the Lebanese armed forces should not be released.

“Lebanon has long insisted that anyone Syrian or otherwise accused of committing serious crimes against the Lebanese army should not be extradited,” David Wood, the senior Lebanon analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera. “That has been one key obstacle to resolving this prisoner agreement up until now.”

Political prisoners?

Lebanese-Syrian relations have long been complex. Under Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and later his son Bashar, Syrian forces controlled Lebanon from 1976 to 2005.

Even after Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon, Syria maintained influence over Lebanon via its allies there, including the political and military group Hezbollah.

When the 2011 Syrian uprising began and was subsequently repressed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Syria’s border with Lebanon soon became a hotspot for the transportation of people – both fighters and refugees – weapons and drugs.

In Lebanon, the Syrian war had a strong impact. It spilled over into clashes in the northern city of Tripoli; the Battle of Abra, which involved firebrand anti-Assad sheikh Ahmad al-Assir and Lebanese-Palestinian pop star Fadel Shaker; battles with Hezbollah and the Lebanese army on one side and ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda-aligned groups on the other; and attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

In the intervening years, hundreds of Syrians were arrested by Lebanese authorities and held in Lebanon’s overcrowded prisons.

When the al-Assad regime fell, the new Syrian government quickly looked to reframe the relationship with Lebanon, expressing an interest in building ties based on mutual respect and interests.

Among Damascus’s priorities were delineating their shared border and economic and security cooperation. But it also prioritised the repatriation of Syrians in Lebanese prisons.

“The allegation from Damascus is that in many cases the reason for [imprisonment] is political and specifically due to perceived ties between the inmates and groups that were opposed to the former regime of Bashar al-Assad,” Wood said. In its view, “it was actually Assad’s Lebanese allies who conspired to make sure that these people were imprisoned in Lebanon.”

By that logic, the fall of al-Assad and the weakening of Hezbollah after Israel’s 2024 war on Lebanon meant that these prisoners should be released.

Some Lebanese disagree and see the issue as more of a grey area. Even if the Syrian prisoners in question had fought Hezbollah, it had been at a time when the Shia group had been coordinating with the Lebanese army – and, for many Lebanese, fighting the army is a red line.

An important step

On Friday, the agreement was signed with a number of Lebanese ministers present, including Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri and the two countries’ justice ministers.

“This is a very important first step on the road of a comprehensive treatment regarding Syrian prisoners in Lebanese prisons,” Mitri said to reporters on Friday.

Syrian Justice Minister Mazhar al-Wais said: “This step will boost existing confidence, and we hope that relations will progress more.”

The agreement reportedly stipulates that over the next three months, about 300 prisoners will be repatriated to Syria and those serving time for serious crimes, such as rape or murder for example, must have served 10 or more years of their sentences in Lebanese prisons to be eligible for repatriation.

Lebanese prisoners, such as al-Assir, are not included in the deal.

But other issues remain. Among them are Lebanon’s backlogged judicial system and issues related to Lebanese inmates in Syrian prisons.

Only about 750 Syrian prisoners out of the 2,400 have been convicted. That means roughly 65 percent of prisoners are not eligible for repatriation yet.

Fadel Abdulghany of the Syrian Network for Human Rights described this as a “two-track” problem. On his personal website, Abdulghany noted that the transfer of prisoners convicted with final sentences can be carried out with a “swift step”.

However, for those who have yet to be convicted, the issue is not as straightforward. A mechanism for pretrial detention has not yet been agreed by the respective authorities.

“This is not merely a Syrian issue but one that touches the very structure of the Lebanese criminal justice system,” Abdulghany wrote. “Therefore, transferring convicts will not resolve the problem, because the root cause is the slow pace of procedures in Lebanon and the accumulation of detainees held without trial, along with the ensuing issues concerning the legality and continuation of their detention.”

He warned that such detainees could be used as political bargaining chips by Hezbollah. Some members or supporters of the group blame these prisoners for car bombings or other such attacks on their villages. While many of those attacks were on Shia Muslim areas where Hezbollah support is predominant, Christian villages, such as al-Qaa and Ras Baalbeck in the Bekaa Valley, were also subject to attacks.

‘There are no names’

Marcel Baloukji, a former brigadier general who oversaw the Lebanese army’s border committee with Syria, told Al Jazeera that the 300 or so prisoners who are to be transferred do not include many of the more hardened prisoners associated with ISIL or al-Qaeda whom Lebanese authorities have apprehended over the years.

But Baloukji also pointed out that the issue of Lebanese prisoners in Syrian jails is still important for the Lebanese side. Under the al-Assad regime, more than 100,000 people were forcibly disappeared, including hundreds or potentially thousands of Lebanese, going as far back as the Lebanese Civil War.

Mass graves have been found around Syria since the fall of the regime. However, much work needs to be done to identify all the bodies. Until now, the vast majority have still not been identified – neither Syrian nor Lebanese.

“There’s still a problem because there has to be an exchange between Lebanon and Syria,” Baloukji said. “There’s no one there. Most of them are not identified. There are no names.”

Israel is accused of spraying chemicals on farmland inside Syria and Lebanon to destroy crops and plants. Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna reports from Quneitra in southern Syria, where farmers say the damage is threatening their livelihoods.

Abdel Hamid Karimeh says seven people injured as rescue teams search for people trapped under rubble.

At least six people have been killed and seven others were wounded when two adjoining buildings collapsed in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, the head of ⁠the municipal council said.

Abdel Hamid Karimeh, speaking at a press conference in Tripoli on Sunday, did not say how many people might still be ‌trapped under debris in the northern city’s Bab al-Tabbaneh neighbourhood.

Search and rescue operations were under way, with civil defence teams, supported by the Lebanese Red Cross and emergency and relief agencies, leading efforts.

Residents of the neighbourhoood also took part in rescue efforts, rushing to help remove debris and create openings in the collapsed building.

Members of the Internal Security Forces and Tripoli municipal police have evacuated residential buildings adjacent to the collapsed building, fearing their collapse, amid a heavy deployment of army personnel, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported. It said eight injured people had been rescued.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun ordered all emergency services to be on high alert to assist in rescue operations and to provide shelter for the residents of the neighboring buildings, according to the NNA report.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a statement that the government is fully prepared to provide housing allowances for all residents of buildings that need to be evacuated.

“Given the magnitude of this humanitarian catastrophe, the result of years of accumulated neglect, and out of respect for the lives of the victims, I urge all those involved in politics, in Tripoli and elsewhere, to refrain from exploiting this horrific disaster for cheap and short-sighted political gains,” he said.

Lebanon’s infrastructure has suffered from decades of neglect, economic collapse, corruption, and damage caused by conflicts with Israel. Key issues include chronic electricity shortages, an unreliable water supply with contamination risks, and crumbling roads and buildings.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb. 6 (UPI) — French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Friday that a military escalation in the Middle East must be avoided, urging Iran-backed groups to show restraint and Lebanon to stay out of any war between Iran and the United States.

Speaking during a news conference after meeting Lebanon’s top officials in Beirut, Barrot said that a military escalation in the region “is a risk we must avoid by all means,” calling on Iran to prepare “to make major concessions and to radically change its posture.”

He added that Iran, which held a first round of talks with the United States in Oman on Friday, must renounce its role as “a destabilizing power,” citing its nuclear program, its missile and ballistic programs, and its support for “terrorist groups” in the region, which he said “pose threats to countries in the Near and Middle East as well as to European countries.”

The Oman talks came as the United States reinforced its military presence in the Middle East following Iran’s violent suppression of anti-government protests last month, which rights groups say killed thousands. President Donald Trump has warned of military action if no agreement is reached, while Iran has threatened retaliation against U.S. forces in the region and Israel.

“If we were to witness a regional escalation, Iran-backed groups throughout the region would need to exercise the utmost restraint, so as not to worsen a situation that would profoundly destabilize the Near and Middle East,” Barrot said.

He also said that Lebanon must “at all costs” avoid being drawn into the escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran, similar to the war that erupted with Israel after Hezbollah opened a support front for Gaza on October 8, 2023.

“Dissociation is a condition for Lebanon’s security,” he said.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said last week that his group would not remain “neutral” if Iran were attacked and its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were threatened by Trump-comments that were strongly rejected by Lebanese officials, who refused to let Lebanon be drawn into the conflict.

The militant group was severely weakened during the war with Israel but has quietly been attempting to reorganize its ranks and secure new channels for rearming and funding. It has refused to fully disarm under the November 27 cease-fire agreement, as long as Israel continues strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon and refuses to abide by the truce.

The French Foreign Minister said that the regional equation has changed due to recent conflicts and that “everyone must draw the appropriate conclusions.”

Barrot said his talks with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and House Speaker Nabih Berri also addressed preparations for an international conference in Paris on March 5, aimed at supporting the Lebanese Army and assisting it in completing Hezbollah’s disarmament.

Israeli warplanes conducted more than 50 raids on Lebanon last month amid major surge in attacks, says refugee rights NGO.

Israel is carrying out a “clear and dangerous” surge in air attacks on Lebanon, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has said, with its warplanes conducting more attacks on its neighbour in January than in any previous month since the ceasefire.

The humanitarian organisation said on Thursday that Israeli warplanes had carried out at least 50 air raids on Lebanon last month – about double the number of the previous month.

The group said the repeated attacks made a mockery of the ceasefire agreed between Israel and Lebanon in November 2024, after more than a year of cross-border attacks and a two-month-long Israeli intensification that killed thousands in Lebanon and devastated civilian infrastructure.

“These attacks – as well as the many ground incursions that continue to happen away from the cameras – have deemed the ceasefire agreement little more than ink on paper,” said Maureen Philippon, NRC’s country director in Lebanon.

The data, provided to the NRC by security company Atlas Assistance, captures only attacks carried out by manned Israeli warplanes and does not include Israeli drone attacks, which regularly result in deaths in Lebanon, or attacks carried out during Israeli ground incursions.

The Israeli attacks have continued in recent days. On Monday, Israeli warplanes targeted buildings in two villages in southern Lebanon, Kfar Tebnit and Ain Qana, after issuing evacuation orders to residents.

Israel’s military claimed the buildings were Hezbollah “military infrastructure” and said it was targeting them in response to what it said were the group’s prohibited attempts to rebuild its activities in the area.

On Wednesday, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of committing an environmental crime after Israeli aircraft sprayed an unknown substance over southern Lebanese towns.

Death and displacement

The NRC said the ongoing attacks have created a climate of fear and instability for residents and were hampering much-needed reconstruction efforts, in a country still reeling from the effects of the conflict with Israel before the ceasefire.

The attacks have struck targets in dozens of cities and villages in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, destroying homes and displacing families in an environment where approximately 64,000 people have already been displaced by the conflict.

“Aid agencies, including NRC, are still dealing with the aftermath and consequences of months of destructive conflict which left much of Lebanon in ruins,” said Philippon.

She said the effect of the attacks was being felt by families and children, citing a school in west Bekaa that had recently been repaired by her organisation, only to be damaged again in a recent attack in the area.

“This means yet another spell of interrupted education for children,” she said.

Philippon called on Israel’s allies to do “everything they can to stop these attacks on civilian areas and villages”.

“This vicious cycle has to end,” she added.

‘Thousands’ of breaches

Under the terms of the November 2024 ceasefire, cross-border attacks were supposed to stop; Hezbollah was to withdraw north of the Litani River, which runs across south Lebanon; and Israel was to withdraw troops that had invaded south Lebanon in October.

Israel, however, has continued its attacks across the south and the Bekaa Valley in the east on a near-daily basis, while its army continues to occupy five points in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese government says Israel has committed thousands of breaches of the ceasefire agreement.

Hezbollah has launched only one attack in the 14 months since the ceasefire, while Israel has killed more than 330 people in Lebanon, including at least 127 civilians, and a top Hezbollah commander, Haytham Ali Tabatabai.

Beirut, Lebanon – Before Israel’s war on Lebanon, Ali (full name withheld for safety reasons) lived in Haddatha, a village in the Bint Jbeil district in the south, about 12km (7.5 miles) from the border with Israel, surrounded by nature where agriculture was intrinsic to life.

Then came Israel’s “hellfire”.

At least nine people were killed and some 3,000 injured, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, when thousands of pagers exploded, nearly simultaneously, overwhelming hospitals on September 17, 2024.

Six days later, Israel escalated its attacks across the south, killing nearly 600 people, in what was the country’s deadliest day since the country’s ruinous civil war ended in 1990, and displacing more than one million people.

“Our house was destroyed,” he told Al Jazeera. Ali took refuge in a town about 20km (12.5 miles) north of Haddatha, called Burj Qalaway.

But more than a year later, he is yet to return home despite a ceasefire. He is one of tens of thousands who are still displaced from their homes around Lebanon and who say that what little they have received in support from the Lebanese state or Hezbollah is not enough to rebuild their lives or homes destroyed during the war.

South ‘not safe’

On November 27, 2024, a ceasefire came into effect between Hezbollah and Israel. The agreement brought to an end more than a year of cross-border attacks and a two-month-long Israeli intensification that killed thousands in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and devastated civilian infrastructure.

Under the ceasefire, cross-border attacks were supposed to stop, Hezbollah was to withdraw north of the Litani River, which runs across south Lebanon, and Israel was to withdraw troops that had invaded south Lebanon in October.

Israel, however, never stopped attacking. Its army still occupies five points in southern Lebanon, and during the ceasefire, it razed several villages to the ground.

An estimated 1.2 million people, more than a quarter of the Lebanese population, had been displaced during the war. On the morning of November 27, hundreds of thousands of people streamed south to their villages to return home. But tens of thousands more have been left behind and are still unable to go home.

“The south is not safe,” Ali said. “I am afraid that I might be walking somewhere and a raid will attack a car next to me.”

Israeli attacks continue across the south and the Bekaa Valley in the east on a near-daily basis, with the Lebanese government counting more than 2,000 Israeli violations of the 2024 ceasefire deal in the last three months of 2025.

Ali is not alone. The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 64,000 people are still internally displaced in Lebanon, according to figures compiled in October 2025.

Entire villages ‘razed’

Some of the 64,000 cannot return to their homes along the border region with Israel. Israeli soldiers still hold five points on Lebanese territory, managing large swaths of south Lebanon through violence and technology: using drones, air raids, shelling or gunfire. Since the ceasefire, Israel has killed more than 330 people in Lebanon, including at least 127 civilians.

Melina*, from Odaisseh, a village on the southern border, lived most of her life in Nabatieh. During the war, she was displaced to Sidon, a southern city about 44km (27 miles) south of Beirut.

“I haven’t been able to visit my village,” she told Al Jazeera. “Psychologically, I can’t bear to see our house, which was completely destroyed, and the entire village was razed to the ground.”

“The security situation remains extremely dangerous,” she said. “You could be shot at by the Israeli side at any moment, and it’s unsafe to travel without a Lebanese army escort.”

Ali runs a market in Burj Qalaway, but he says the income is not enough to rebuild his home. There are also other concerns. Israel has attacked reconstruction equipment in southern Lebanon, drawing criticism from human rights groups.

“Amid the ceasefire, Israeli forces have carried out attacks that unlawfully target reconstruction-related equipment and facilities,” Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a December 2025 report. “After reducing many of Lebanon’s southern border towns to rubble, the Israeli military is now making it much more difficult for tens of thousands of residents to rebuild their destroyed homes and return to their towns.”

Some Lebanese also fear a renewed Israeli offensive similar to the one in 2024.

‘Couldn’t see 2cm in front of me’

On July 30, 2024, at about 7:40pm, Ramez* was sitting in his bedroom at home in Haret Hreik, a neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs referred to locally as Dahiyeh, an area often targeted in the past by Israel for the Hezbollah presence there.

His cats were roaming around the room, and he was busy on his phone when he heard loud explosions.

The war had been raging in the south, but attacks on Beirut and its suburbs were not yet as common. “I heard more than nine bangs,” Ramez said. He ran out of his bedroom to help his family evacuate. He left his door open, he said, so his cats could escape. While telling his mother to grab her things, he heard the loudest bang.

“The whole neighbouring building just collapsed and fell on us,” he said. Israel had just levelled the building next to his, killing Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander.

“I couldn’t see 2cm in front of me because of the fog and the dust.”

Ramez’s family escaped unscathed, though their house was badly damaged and his sister’s car was destroyed. His cats also survived. He found them the next day.

“I always wondered how people just go through something like this and just move on, saying, OK, Alhamdulillah, everyone is alive,” he says, though, “at that point I kind of understood it”.

Since the end of the war, he has been able to return to his family home in Haret Hreik. But his family had to pay for most of the reconstruction themselves, with little help from the government or any group.

They registered with the government for assistance but said they received only a one-time payment of 30 million Lebanese pounds (a little more than $330).

Hezbollah also sent engineers to assess the damage. In December 2024, the Reuters news agency reported that Hezbollah would pay about $77m and rent to families affected by war. Some locals said payments from the group helped a bit, but others said it had stopped paying nonmembers or tried to undervalue their losses.

“They were very stingy with payments,” Ramez said. “They tried to make us accept low payments, but my mom stood her ground and said it is enough.”

Other people who were displaced by the war told Al Jazeera that the aid provided by the state and Hezbollah was very limited.

War is ‘most terrible’

Reports are mixed over Hezbollah’s financial capability, and it is difficult to determine how badly they have been hit financially after the group’s political and military leadership was devastated by 2024’s war and suffered several Israeli assassinations, including their longtime charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria also dealt Hezbollah a serious blow, disrupting the land route to its main benefactor, Iran – itself now reeling from deadly protests and bracing for a possible US attack. The group is under immense pressure from the Lebanese government to disarm, with the United States and Israel applying pressure.

Further compounding the crisis is the fact that Lebanon is now almost seven years into one of the worst economic crises in more than 150 years, according to the World Bank. This has hit locals hard, with many having their bank accounts frozen and the currency devaluing by more than 90 percent.

This has left many of the displaced feeling abandoned and unsure of how to continue.

There were violent Israeli air raids in the south on Saturday, which continued on Sunday. In the meantime, people like Ali have to continue figuring out ways to survive as their displacement carries on well past the one-year mark.

“We love life, but the situation is not good. Wars break your back,” Ali said. “War is the most terrible thing in the world.”

*Real names withheld for safety reasons.

Joao Sousa contributed to this report.

Lebanese government says it documented 2,036 Israeli breaches of Lebanon’s sovereignty in the last three months of 2025.

Lebanon has filed a complaint with the United Nations about repeated Israeli violations of a November 2024 ceasefire, calling on the Security Council to push Israel to end its attacks and fully withdraw from the country.

The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants said the complaint, sent on Monday, stressed that Israeli abuses are a “clear” violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

The ministry said it called on the 15-member body to compel Israel to “completely withdraw to beyond the internationally recognised borders”, end its repeated violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty and release Lebanese prisoners it is holding.

“The complaint included three tables detailing Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty on a daily basis during the months of October, November and December 2025. The number of these violations amounted to 542, 691 and 803 respectively, totaling 2,036 violations,” it added.

The complaint was made a day after Israel launched a wave of air strikes across Lebanon, killing at least two people.

Despite the 2024 ceasefire, the Israeli military has been launching near-daily attacks in Lebanon, which have killed hundreds of people. In November last year, the UN put the number of civilians killed in Israeli attacks at at least 127.

Israel also continues to occupy five points within Lebanese territory as it blocks the reconstruction of several border villages that it levelled to the ground, preventing tens of thousands of displaced people from returning to their homes.

Meanwhile, Israel is estimated to be holding more than a dozen Lebanese prisoners, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians who were taken from border villages in 2024. Israel has resisted calls to submit a list of the Lebanese citizens it is holding, leaving the fate of many missing people in southern Lebanon in limbo.

Israeli forces have also repeatedly opened fire at peacekeepers in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon.

The Foreign Ministry in Beirut said on Monday that “it called for pressure to be exerted on Israel to stop its attacks on UNIFIL, which continues to make the ultimate sacrifices to bring security and stability to the region.”

Lebanon has filed similar complaints to the UN in the past, but Israeli attacks have not relented.

On Monday, Israeli drones dropped two stun grenades in the southern village of Odaisseh, Lebanese news outlets reported.

Israel had severely weakened Hezbollah in an all-out war late in 2024, killing most of the group’s military and political leaders. Israel’s campaign has helped it establish a new balance of power and allowed it to launch regular assaults in Lebanon without a response.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese government has been pushing to disarm Hezbollah.

This month, Beirut said it had completed the removal of the group’s weapons south of the Litani River, 28km (17 miles) from the Israeli border.

Despite that announcement, Israeli air strikes have continued both south and north of the Litani.

Hezbollah has tacitly agreed to disarmament south of the Litani in accordance with UN Resolution 1701, but it has warned that it will not completely give up its weapons, arguing that they are necessary to stop Israel’s expansionism.

The next phase of the Lebanese government’s plan to remove Hezbollah’s weapons will target the region about 40km (25 miles) north of the Litani River to the Awali River.