Lebanon ‘doesn’t need war’ with Israel: French minister

DEIR KIFA, Lebanon: French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Thursday that Lebanon “doesn´t need a war” with Israel and warned against a regional escalation as Israel bombards Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon´s southern border has seen near daily exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah, since Hamas launched a shock attack on Israel from the Palestinian territory on October 7.

“Lebanon doesn´t need a war, that´s the least we can say,” Lecornu said during a visit to French peacekeepers in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Such a war “could have major escalatory effects on the whole region,” he added.

The cross-border exchanges have left 66 dead on the Lebanese side -- 48 of them Hezbollah fighters but also including seven civilians, one of them a Reuters journalist, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, nine people have died -- eight soldiers and one civilian, the army says.

On Saturday, a UN peacekeeper was wounded by shelling, the mission´s spokesman said, hours after reporting a hit on its headquarters. Iran-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah has been targeting Israeli observation posts and military positions near the border.

The group´s leader Hassan Nasrallah is to speak on Friday for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war broke out. Lecornu said there was no interest in interrupting UNIFIL´s mandate in the face of the current border tensions, adding he had heard “here and there that UNIFIL should stop its patrols”.