BEIRUT: For two days after Israel and the US unleashed their joint aerial assault on Iran on Saturday, many Lebanese allowed themselves to believe that, for once, their country was the safest place to be in the Middle East.

That all changed on Monday morning, however, when the Iran-backed Hezbollah unleashed a barrage of drones and rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel, “in retaliation for the pure blood of ... Ayatollah Khamenei” and “in defense of Lebanon and its people.”

Israel’s response was as swift as it was predictable. Now Lebanon has joined the long list of countries embroiled in the region’s latest war.

Israeli aircraft quickly struck targets across the country, in the south, where it warned people in more than 50 villages to evacuate, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and in the Bekaa Valley.

Within hours, Lebanon’s National News Agency was reporting that more than 30 people had been killed and dozens more injured. 

Hezbollah’s overnight attack on the Israeli city of Haifa came after days of clear warnings from President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam that Lebanon should not be dragged into the broader regional conflict. 

Following an emergency meeting Monday morning, Salam announced that the Lebanese government had banned Hezbollah’s military and security activities and was restricting the group to purely political roles.  

He stressed that “the decision of war and peace rests exclusively with the state,” signalling that independent armed actions by non-state actors will no longer be tolerated.  

“The effort by the Lebanese authorities is to reaffirm that they alone have the right to take a decision on war and peace,” Michael Young, senior editor at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, told Arab News.

“I think by and large, most Lebanese political forces, if not virtually all — other than Hezbollah — considered that this step taken by the party was reckless and unnecessary.” 

It may also prove terminally reckless for Hezbollah itself, which was weakened in the wake of the 2024 war with Israel and has been enduring a steady stream of attacks on its heartland ever since.

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hezbollah would pay a “heavy price,” adding that its secretary-general, Naim Qassem, was “now a marked target for assassination.”

Hundreds of thousands of civilians, mainly from the Shiite community from which Hezbollah draws its support, fled the south in a bid to seek sanctuary in Beirut, echoing the events that unfolded in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel.

“All this so that they could fire a few Katyusha rockets into northern Israel,” said Young. “It doesn’t look good for the party. By and large, most political forces see absolutely no advantage in this, whatever they think about Israel.”

The Lebanese army has been ordered to implement the government plan to consolidate weapons under state control, particularly north of the Litani River. 

The government’s rejection of non-state military action was unanimously backed by the cabinet, with directives to intensify international diplomatic contacts to halt ongoing Israeli operations and ensure compliance with international resolutions.

Political figures welcomed the decisions taken by the Lebanese cabinet. An official source told Arab News: “The decisions are implementable — there are security and military agencies, and there is a state.”

The cabinet’s decisions, said independent MP Waddah Al-Sadek, “are 90 percent in line with our aspirations, against the backdrop of the grave mistake committed by Hezbollah.”

Al-Sadek revealed that, following consultations with parliamentary blocs from all the different political orientations, there had been an intention to call on parliament to remove Hezbollah’s political cover.

“Considering Hezbollah’s military wing as an illegal organization is an advanced step,” he said. “But the real test lies in implementation.” 

Al-Sadek stressed that “the army must implement immediately without granting any time limits.

“The military institution must be supported, and we must immediately demand raising the level of representation in the Mechanism Committee as Israel is preparing for a ground invasion of Lebanon,” he said, referring to the International Monitoring and Implementation Committee established to oversee the ceasefire.

He described Hezbollah’s attack on Israel as “an extension of the Iranian mistake, which it knew had reached its end, so it decided to commit suicide and bring the entire structure down on everyone.”

Former MP Fares Saeed, one of the leading figures of the former March 14 movement, said: “Through its decisions, the government has — at least verbally — drawn boundaries between the interests of the Lebanese people and Hezbollah’s interests. 

Saeed revealed that “the cabinet’s decisions came in response to American pressure conveyed to the Lebanese state, requiring it to distance itself from Hezbollah in order to protect the airport, the port, and the bridges from Israeli strikes.”

He added: “The government’s decisions have convinced me — what matters is that they convince the Israelis, and more importantly, the Americans.”

When asked whether Hezbollah had violated the commitments it had given to Nabih Berri, speaker of the parliament and head of the Amal Movement, not to carry out any military operation from Lebanese territory, Amal MP Qassem Hashem said: “Silence is better than speaking now.

“Let the government do what it wants to do, and we will work as much as possible to support the people who have been displaced from their homes and villages.” 

Reports circulating following the morning’s attacks indicated that Berri had been shocked by Hezbollah’s actions and had instructed his ministers in the government not to withdraw from the cabinet session that decided to ban Hezbollah’s military activities.

“My suspicion is that perhaps there would be a rift between them (Hezbollah) and Nabih Berri over this, because they lied to Berri,” Young said.

“So Berri is angry with the party as well. He doesn’t want to and probably will not withdraw his ministers from the government, which means that Hezbollah, if it were to withdraw, would not really undermine Shiite representation and would only isolate itself further.

“This is just sort of the micro-politics that one has to look at now in terms of what’s going on in the country.” 

Meanwhile, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, chief-of-staff of the Israel Defense Forces, told fellow officers this was the start of an “offensive campaign” against Hezbollah.

“We are not only operating defensively — we are now going on the offensive as well. We must prepare for many prolonged days of combat ahead,” he said.

Whether or not the Lebanese government will be able to maintain its control over arms in the country, as well as distance itself from Hezbollah’s actions remains to be seen. 

IDF spokesperson Brig Gen Effie Defrin said it had already deployed troops to defend the border with Lebanon and for “all possibilities.”

Asked by a journalist whether Israel now planned a new ground invasion of southern Lebanon, he said “all options” were “on the table.”

With additional reporting from Najia Houssari from Beirut.