Lebanon PM says working to avoid 'war' with Israel

BEIRUT — Lebanon's caretaker prime minister said on Monday he was working to ensure his country does not enter the Hamas-Israel war, even as Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging cross-border fire.

Najib Mikati said he feared an escalation, with the border skirmishes stoking concerns that Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbollah could launch its own war with Israel.

"I am doing my duty to prevent Lebanon from entering the war" raging further south, Mikati told AFP in an interview.

Cash-strapped Lebanon is facing the possibility of war essentially leaderless, as political divisions have left the country without a president for almost a year, while Mikati has headed a caretaker cabinet for about a year and a half.

"Lebanon is in the eye of the storm," Mikati said.

"I cannot rule out an escalation because there is a race to reach a ceasefire before escalation spreads in the entire region."

Hizbollah and allied Palestinian factions in Lebanon have exchanged fire with Israel almost daily since Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel.

Iran-backed or affiliated groups have also launched attacks on Israel from Syria, and targeted US forces stationed in Syria and Iraq.

Mikati, who is on good terms with Hizbollah, said he has no “clear answer” about whether war loomed ahead, adding that “it depends on regional developments”.

In 2006, Israel and Hizbollah fought a bloody conflict that left more than 1,200 people dead in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, mostly soldiers.

“For now Hizbollah has managed the situation rationally and wisely, and the rules of the game have remained constrained to certain limits,” Mikati said.

“But at the same time I feel like I cannot reassure Lebanese” because the situation is still developing, he added.

Violence on the Israel-Lebanon border has killed at least 62 people in Lebanon according to an AFP tally, 47 of them Hizbollah fighters but also including four civilians, one a Reuters journalist.

Israeli officials have reported at least four deaths, including one civilian.

Nearly 29,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon due to the skirmishes, according to the International Organisation for Migration.