File Photo: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam speaks to journalists after meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon. AP
“Israel must understand that with its scorched-earth policy, collective punishment, and the bulldozing of villages and towns, it will gain neither security nor stability. Instead, it is deepening the divide with the Lebanese people and leaving deep wounds in their collective memory,” Salam said in a televised address on Saturday.
“What Israel is doing is not only a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, but also an attempt to uproot the memory of the place and erase the history of the people,” he warned. “Israel is practicing mass displacement that amounts to collective punishment. It no longer targets only specific locations or areas, but has adopted a policy of comprehensive destruction of cities, towns, and all aspects of life within them.”
Salam’s remarks came after Israel issued new forced displacement orders for several southern Lebanese villages, and one day after landmark security talks in Washington between Israeli and Lebanese military delegations. The discussions preceded US-brokered negotiations set for next week, the fourth round since the Israeli war on Lebanon erupted in March.
Salam stressed that negotiations, while not guaranteed to succeed, remain the “least costly path” for Lebanon.
“Negotiations are not a surrender, because the first item on the agenda is a ceasefire,” explained the premier, who has faced criticism from some Lebanese, primarily from Hezbollah, for his decision to engage in direct negotiations with Israel.
“The goal we are working to achieve through negotiations, which is absolutely non-negotiable, is a complete withdrawal and the release of prisoners, allowing for reconstruction and the return of people to their land,” he added.
However, a US statement after Friday’s talks made no mention of a ceasefire. Israel has since intensified its air and ground assault on Lebanon despite a truce officially taking effect on 17 April.
Hezbollah has responded with retaliatory strikes against Israeli positions, citing repeated ceasefire violations and Israel’s continued occupation of southern Lebanon.
Israeli occupation forces have killed at least 603 and injured 1,774 others since the mid-April ceasefire went into effect, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health stated.
Israeli occupation troops who invaded Lebanon are also launching attacks and levelling entire towns inside an Israeli-declared "yellow line" running around 10 kilometres (six miles) deep along Lebanon's southern border.
This week, Israel aggressively escalated its war as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the army to intensify attacks, further shattering the fragile truce. Netanyahu's extremist National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, also publicly urged Netanyahu to “level the suburbs [of Beirut] to the ground” in an Instagram video.
The Israeli military has advanced into towns north of the Litani River and captured the historic Beaufort Castle, marking a deep incursion not seen in decades. Israeli forces have also issued displacement orders for areas south of the Zahrani River and near Tyre, where strikes hit close to a hospital and several villages.
Hezbollah targeted Israeli positions in Shlomi and Nahariya on Sunday, as air raid sirens sounded in northern Israeli cities for the first time since the ceasefire. The Israeli army said one soldier was killed by a Hezbollah drone, bringing its death toll in Lebanon to 25 since March.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes late Friday and Saturday killed at least 15 people, including paramedics and a Syrian national, and wounded several others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Two Lebanese soldiers were also seriously injured in an Israeli drone strike near Nabatieh.
Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on 2 March following the US and Israeli strikes on Iran. However, this escalation did not emerge in isolation. It followed 15 months of relentless Israeli violations of the November 2024 ceasefire, which claimed the lives of hundreds of Lebanese civilians. Furthermore, Israel maintained an illegal occupation of southern Lebanon, stubbornly refusing to withdraw in blatant violation of that truce.
The rocket fire also came after Israel finalized plans for a wider assault on Lebanon and later issued formal directives to militarily occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani River.
Since 2 March, Israeli aggression has killed more than 3,371 Lebanese people, injured over 10,129, and displaced more than 1.6 million, according to Lebanese authorities.
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