Lebanon must not become next Gaza, says UN chief

• Guterres warns war in Middle East is ‘out of control’; calls for immediate halt to hostilities between Israel, Hezbollah
• Israeli strikes kill nine more in Beirut, southern areas
• Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez condemns US-Israeli actions

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that fighting between Israel and Hezbollah must not condemn Lebanon to the same fate as Gaza, the Palestinian territory decimated by years of conflict.

“The Gaza model must not be replicated in Lebanon,” Guterres told reporters, also saying the wider war in the Middle East is “out of control”, as the United States, Israel and Iran have carried out strikes for more than three weeks.

“Across the region, and far beyond, civilians are enduring serious harm and living under profound insecurity. I witnessed some of these consequences firsthand during my recent visit to Lebanon,” he said.

“There, too, the war must stop. Hezbollah must stop launching attacks into Israel. And Israel must stop its military operations and strikes in Lebanon, which are hitting civilians the hardest.”

In early March, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened Beirut’s southern suburbs with the same devastation that Israel has inflicted on Gaza in its war in Gaza.

Beyond Lebanon, Guterres voiced alarm at the wider regional war triggered by US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February that killed the country’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. “The conflict has broken past the limits even leaders thought imaginable,” he said.

“The world is staring down the barrel of a wider war, a rising tide of human suffering, and a deeper global economic shock. This has gone too far.”

The UN chief also announced the appointment of French diplomat Jean Arnault as his special envoy to lead UN efforts regarding the conflict and its consequences. UN chief says Lebanon must not become next Gaza amid fighting.

Israel broadens assault

Meanwhile, relentless Israeli aggression continued across Lebanon on Wednesday, with a new wave of strikes hitting the capital’s southern suburbs and multiple locations in the south, according to Lebanese state media.

According to the state media, Israeli strikes killed at least six people in a town and a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern Sidon area, and three more in another town.

The human cost of Israel’s campaign continues to climb. Lebanon’s health ministry reported that two paramedics were among those killed in an Israeli strike.

Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, delivered a defiant message on Wednesday, rejecting any negotiations while Lebanon is under attack.

“When negotiations with the Israeli enemy are proposed under fire, this is an imposition of surrender,” Qassem said. He insisted that dialogue under such conditions would be tantamount to capitulation.

Spanish PM slams Israel

His words come as international alarm grows over Israel’s clear intentions. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned on Wednesday that Israel aims to replicate the catastrophic destruction it inflicted on Gaza in Lebanon.

“An emboldened Israeli Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu aims to inflict on Lebanon the same destruction and suffering that was committed in Gaza,” Sanchez told lawmakers. “It’s not fair that someone sets fire to the world and the rest of us have to swallow the ashes.”

Sanchez also condemned the global economic toll of the conflict, which he blamed on “illegal US and Israeli actions,” stating that Spanish firms alone have lost 100bn euro in under a month. “Every bomb that falls in the Middle East hits the wallets of our families,” he added.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2026