THE ink on the latest ceasefire extension between Israel and Lebanon was barely dry when Israeli warplanes were back in the skies over the south of the latter country. Six people were killed — three of them paramedics serving at a clinic. Meanwhile, villages across southern Lebanon have once again been forced to empty. This is hardly a ceasefire; it is a mere ritual for diplomatic consumption while the bombs continue to fall and kill. The pattern by now is grimly familiar. Israel agrees to pause hostilities, its envoys shake hands in Washington and within hours its military is back at work, reclassifying populated areas as ‘Hezbollah infrastructure’, and resuming what has been by any honest reckoning a campaign of collective punishment. The 45-day extension agreed to recently means little if the same cycle continues to repeat itself — a brief diplomatic interlude followed by renewed bombardment and more casualties in Lebanon’s southern region.

Lebanon is a sovereign state. It is not a theatre for Israeli military doctrine, nor a buffer zone to be reshaped at will. The incremental erosion of its territorial integrity through the continued presence of Israeli forces and the unilateral redrawing of demarcation lines must end. Any framework for lasting peace must begin with an unconditional Israeli withdrawal and genuine respect for Lebanese sovereignty. There can be no durable security architecture built on the rubble of one country’s independence. The international community — the US in particular — must stop treating these ceasefires as achievements. A pause in killing is not peace. The US, which brokered this extension, carries both the leverage and the obligation to hold Israel to account, not just to the letter of temporary truces, but to the enduring principles of international law as well. Lebanon has bled enough. The world cannot keep extending deadlines and disregarding impunity. What is required is not another 45 days of managed violence, but a permanent and verifiable peace.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2026