As Israel and Hezbollah returned to large-scale fighting in southern Lebanon during Ramadan, some Lebanese Shiites voiced anger that Hezbollah’s strikes and the ensuing Israeli bombardment have again forced families from their homes and into shelters. The Associated Press reported that on March 2, after Israeli warplanes began attacking southern Lebanon in retaliation for rockets and drones launched by Hezbollah, civilians fled and many ended up in Beirut or in temporary school shelters. A 45-year-old Shiite woman, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from Hezbollah supporters, said she opposes actions that give Israel justification and condemned what she described as Hezbollah’s choice to initiate the first strike.
The AP reported that tens of thousands of people joined the flight from southern Lebanon and other areas after Israeli warnings that neighborhoods, towns and villages would be targeted. For one family living near Nabatiyeh, what usually takes about an hour stretched to about 15 hours, as displacement escalated with the renewed airstrikes. The woman said she was “totally against Hezbollah’s decision to start with the first strike,” and she described living with her husband, two children—ages 17 and 12—and her mother-in-law in a Beirut school used as a shelter.
The new round of fighting began just 15 months after the last Israel-Hezbollah war ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November 2024, according to the AP. On March 2, two days after the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran that ignited a broader regional war, Hezbollah fired missiles and drones into Israel for the first time in more than a year. AP reporting said hundreds of thousands of residents in southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs have fled, with displacement occurring against a backdrop of cold weather and fasting during Ramadan.
The AP said Shiite communities that suffered heavily in the prior conflict are still trying to recover, and some residents are increasingly open to criticizing Hezbollah even though the group previously faced fewer public challenges inside its base. The AP reported that the last Israel-Hezbollah war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and caused $11 billion in damage, citing the World Bank. For people now living in public squares, with relatives or in improvised shelters, the grievances appear tied both to the physical destruction from repeated cycles of war and to the strain of trying to endure Ramadan while depending on aid.
Hussein Ali, a vegetable vendor staying in a school shelter, told the AP he has already been forced to leave his home twice in less than two years. The AP said his apartment in Haret Hreik—Beirut’s southern suburb—was destroyed during the last Israel-Hezbollah war and that he fears it could be hit again. “No one wanted this war,” the AP reported Ali as saying, adding that “People haven’t recovered from the previous war,” and that he is relying on aid to survive.
Alongside the unrest among some residents, the AP reported that Lebanon’s government has taken a harsher stance against Hezbollah’s armed wing. After the end of Lebanon’s civil war in 1990, militias were required to disarm, but Hezbollah had been exempt because it was fighting Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon at the time. Now, the AP said the government is seeking to crack down on Hezbollah’s parallel military force and bring it under state control. On March 2, the government moved to declare Hezbollah’s military activities illegal, with all but two of 24 Cabinet ministers voting in favor, and only the two Hezbollah ministers voting no—an outcome that, the AP reported, also included ministers from Hezbollah’s ally Amal, led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the government “confirms that the decision of war and peace is only in the hand of the state,” and he added that the government “orders the immediate ban on all of Hezbollah’s military activities as they are illegal and it should be forced to hand over its weapons to the Lebanese state,” the AP reported. The Lebanese army has since begun to crack down, and AP said that last week it arrested three Hezbollah members found transporting weapons at a checkpoint, though the men were released on bail Monday. Government officials told the AP that Hezbollah has repeatedly taken unilateral military actions that should be under state authority.
The AP also reported that some Hezbollah supporters frame the renewed fighting as justified, pointing to what they say is Israel’s continued violations of the November 2024 ceasefire. Ali Saleh, displaced from a southern village near Nabatiyeh, told the AP, “We cannot tolerate that anymore,” and said he prays for God to protect young men and make them victorious against Israel. Even the Shiite woman who criticized Hezbollah’s strike choice told the AP she believed the outcome might have been similar even if militants had not attacked first.
Ali al-Amin, a Lebanese journalist who is a harsh critic of Hezbollah, told the AP that while some people are criticizing Hezbollah more than before, others remain quiet out of fear. “Criticism could have a high cost and not all people express their opinions,” al-Amin said. He added that many poor Shiites rely on assistance that Hezbollah or its ally Amal can provide, and he described how critics on social media were sometimes roughed up in the past.
In contrast, Sadek Nabulsi, a political science professor at the Lebanese University whose thinking aligns with Hezbollah, told the AP that complaints from the base do not represent a wider break in support. The AP reported that Nabulsi said there was similar outcry during the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war that ended in 2024 and during the 2006 war. “Hezbollah’s base of support is known for … tolerating pain,” Nabulsi said, adding that despite harsh conditions, the base remains “coherent, patient and waiting for salvation,” according to the AP.