From the Liveblog of
Monday, March 9, 2026
Lebanon’s president warns that Hezbollah could turn country into ‘second Gaza’
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Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accuses Hezbollah of putting Lebanon in danger of becoming “a second Gaza.”
Speaking with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa, Aoun says — without naming the Iran-backed terror group — that “the launch of a few rockets from Lebanon toward Israel was a trap and an almost overt ambush for Lebanon and the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people,” according to his office.
Hezbollah reprised its rocket and drone attacks on Israel last Monday, after a long hiatus, in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an Israeli strike on February 28.
Aoun speaks of that initial Hezbollah rocket attack with scorn, saying they didn’t deter Israel from attacking Lebanon, nor were they anything approaching revenge for Khamenei’s assassination.
“There are those who wanted these rockets to lure the Israeli army to infiltrate inside Lebanon, and to invade some of its regions, and perhaps even to occupy them,” he says, as the IDF pushes further into southern Lebanon, “and that in order to corner Lebanon between two choices: either entering into a direct confrontation with the Israeli aggression that is unbound by any legal or humanitarian constraints. Which would lead to turning Lebanon into a second Gaza.”
Aoun says that his government intends to enforce a new ban on Hezbollah military activity “in a clear and decisive manner.”
Aoun calls on the international community to help implement a full ceasefire with Israel, support the Lebanese Armed Forces to disarm Hezbollah, and bring Lebanon and Israel back to direct talks.
The Times of Israel Community.