Lebanese PM bans Hezbollah’s military activities after attack on Israel

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Nawaf Salam says all Hezbollah activities are ‘illegal’ after the group launched attacks on Israel from Lebanon.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has issued a statement saying Hezbollah’s military and security activities are banned, hours after Israel responded to the Iran-linked group’s rocket and drone attacks by launching air raids on southern Beirut.

“We announce a ban on Hezbollah’s military activities and restrict its role to the political sphere,” Nawaf said.

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“We declare our rejection of any military or security operations launched from Lebanese territory outside the framework of legitimate institutions.”

The prime minister said all Hezbollah activities were “illegal” and called upon the security forces to “prevent any attacks originating from Lebanese territory”.

“We declare our commitment to the cessation of hostilities and the resumption of negotiations,” he added.

The Iran-allied Lebanese armed group said earlier on Monday that its attack was in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “in defence of Lebanon and its people” and “in response to the repeated Israeli aggressions”.

Israel responded by bombing Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, and killing more than 30 people and injuring 149, according to the state-run National News Agency.

Hezbollah, which operates independently from the Lebanese government, has been weakened by the 2024 war, which saw Israel kill most of the group’s military and political leaders.

Under growing pressure from the United States and Israel, Lebanese authorities agreed to disarm Hezbollah, which dismissed the plan as a US-Israeli ploy and refused to surrender weapons north of the Litani River. The group maintained that a ceasefire signed in November 2024 applied to disarmament exclusively south of the waterway.

Last month, the Lebanese government said its military would need at least four months to complete the second phase of its plan to dismantle Hezbollah’s arsenals in the country’s south. The second phase concerns the area between the Litani and the Awali rivers, about 40km (25 miles) south of Beirut.

It announced in January that it had completed the first phase of its five-stage plan, covering the area between the Litani and the country’s southern border with Israel.

The military escalation between Israel and Hezbollah could deepen the crisis in Lebanon, which has been suffering from economic and political woes for years.

Earlier on Monday, Salam said the Hezbollah attack was “an irresponsible and suspicious act that jeopardises Lebanon’s security and safety and provides Israel with pretexts to continue its aggression”.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said a humanitarian crisis was in the making as hundreds of thousands of people fled from southern Lebanon and the capital’s southern suburbs.

“This is part of Israel’s strategy to punish the supporters of Hezbollah and those who live in areas under Hezbollah’s influence,” she said.

Khodr added that Israel’s objective was to “turn them against the group and blame it for escalating what had been a simmering conflict”.