Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and the U.N.'s Chief of Humanitarian Operations, Tom Fletcher, in Davos on January 20, 2026. (Credit: Photo taken from the X account of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers)
The U.N.'s head of humanitarian operations, Tom Fletcher, said Thursday he fears a long-lasting conflict in southern Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.
"A rather depressing feeling I had – and I think it is shared by many people in Lebanon – is a sense of despair, dejection and anxiety," Tom Fletcher said by video from Syria after a brief stay in Lebanon.
"There is a feeling that this could become a prolonged conflict, and even if a moment is reached when the United States, Israel and Iran declare some form of victory, it will not necessarily end the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah," he continued.
Tom Fletcher also reiterated that there is a "very real risk" of "new territory being occupied in southern Lebanon."
He also expressed his "serious concern about the country's national cohesion," mentioning "the need for all Lebanese actors to come together at this moment of deep fragility, as entire populations are on the move."
Lebanon was drawn into the war between Israel and the United States on one side and Iran on the other after a March 2 Hezbollah attack on Israel, in retaliation for the death of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, killed on the conflict's first day.
The death toll from a month of Israeli strikes in the country now exceeds 1,300 according to the government, while growing concerns are being raised around the world about Israeli plans aimed at controlling part of southern Lebanon.
