Aoun calls on international community to intervene to stop Israeli attacks

BEIRUT — The Israeli strike on a building Sunday in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which killed at least five people and Hezbollah commander Haytham Ali Tabataba'i — the main target of the attack — triggered a wave of reactions across Lebanon.

The strike on the southern suburbs — the first since June 6 — came amid intensified Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Avoiding open escalation

President Joseph Aoun said the Israeli strike, which came a day after the 82nd Independence Day celebrations, “is further proof that Israel pays no heed to repeated calls to halt its aggression against Lebanon.”

He added that Israel “refuses to implement international resolutions as well as all steps and initiatives aimed at ending the escalation of violence and restoring stability, not only in Lebanon but in the entire region.”

Aoun added: “Lebanon, which has been committed to halting hostilities for nearly a year and has multiplied its initiatives, renews its call on the international community to assume its responsibilities and intervene forcefully and seriously to stop the aggression against its population, to prevent any escalation that could reignite regional tensions, and to spare further bloodshed.”

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam reacted later in the afternoon, calling for “uniting all efforts behind the state and its institutions.”

“In this delicate moment, the government’s priority is to protect the Lebanese and prevent the country from sliding into dangerous paths,” Salam wrote in a message posted on X. He said the government would continue its work “through all political and diplomatic means with brotherly and friendly nations to avoid any open escalation, end Israeli aggression, secure Israel’s withdrawal from our territory, and ensure the return of our prisoners.”

He added that “experience has proven that the only path to stabilizing the situation is the full implementation of Resolution 1701, the assertion of state authority over all its territory with its own forces, and strengthening the role of the Lebanese Army in carrying out its missions.”

Monopoly of arms

In comments aired on Al Jazeera, the deputy head of Hezbollah’s political council, Mahmoud Qomati, said the party was first seeking “to verify the identity of the person targeted, then its leadership will study the appropriate response,” hours before Hezbollah had confirmed the death of Tabataba'i.

“All options are on the table,” Qomati said, urging the Lebanese state “to act as a genuine guarantor of national security, not merely issue hollow condemnations,” saying Israeli “barbarism” would “only strengthen our commitment to our national choice.”

He added that the strike signaled “an Israeli green light for military escalation across Lebanon.”

The head of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, called for establishing a “real state in Lebanon, one that holds the monopoly on weapons.”

“In the face of today’s aggression on the southern suburbs, we cannot continue as usual — attack Israel, insult it, then file a complaint at the Security Council. These steps have never achieved anything and certainly won’t today,” he said in a statement.

Other reactions included U.N. Special Coordinator Janine Hennis-Plasschaert, who wrote on X that calm “must prevail in order to consolidate the cease-fire.”

She added: “For the sake of the stability and security both sides say they seek, the time has come to de-escalate.”

Palestinian Islamic Jihad accused Israel of a “war crime,” while the Iranian Embassy in Lebanon said on X that “cowardly attacks will not break the resolve of those defending their rights.”

Hamas also condemned the strike, calling it “a treacherous act and a clear violation of Lebanese sovereignty, aimed at dragging Lebanon and the region into a confrontation that only serves the occupation’s interests.”