By Olivia Le Poidevin and Laila Bassam
GENEVA/BEIRUT, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Israel has warned Lebanon that it will strike hard at Hezbollah, targeting civilian infrastructure including its airport, if it becomes involved in any U.S.-Iran war, two senior Lebanese officials said on Tuesday.
Lebanese officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Israeli message was delivered indirectly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and Lebanon’s president did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Al-Absaidi said on Sunday that Iran and the United States will hold a third round of nuclear talks in Geneva on Thursday amid growing concerns about the risk of military conflict.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, whose government has sought the disarmament of Iran-backed Hezbollah since taking office a year ago, urged the group not to lead Lebanon into “another adventure” in a newspaper interview published on Tuesday.
Israel dealt a heavy blow to Hezbollah in a 2024 war, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and thousands of fighters and destroying much of its arsenal.
Shia Muslim Hezbollah was founded in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Hezbollah’s new leader Naeem Qasim said in a televised address last month that the group was “not neutral” in the standoff between Washington and Tehran and was “a target of potential aggression.”
“We are determined to defend ourselves. We will choose at the appropriate time how to act and whether to intervene,” Qasim said.
Hezbollah’s last war with Israel began after opening fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas at the start of the Gaza conflict in 2023, leading to months of cross-border fighting before Israel launched a devastating offensive.
PM Salam warns Hezbollah against ‘another adventure’
“The Gaza adventure has come at a huge cost to Lebanon. We hope that we will not be dragged into another adventure,” Salam told the Nida al-Watan newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.
The U.S. State Department is evacuating non-essential government personnel and their eligible family members from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, a senior State Department official said on Monday.
Since the 2024 U.S.-backed ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, Israel has carried out regular strikes against targets it considers Hezbollah in Lebanon and accuses the group of trying to rearm.
According to Lebanese statistics, Israeli attacks have killed about 400 people in Lebanon since the ceasefire.
Hezbollah says it abides by ceasefire in southern Lebanon. In January, the U.S.-backed Lebanese army said it had established operational control of the southern region, consistent with its goal of establishing an arms monopoly.
Israel says the effort is an encouraging start but does not go far enough.
(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell and Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Peter Graff and Gareth Jones)
