- Title: Lebanese react to Katz's comments about long-term displacement
- Date: 1st April 2026
- Summary: BEIRUT, LEBANON (April 1, 2026) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LEBANESE MAN FROM BEIRUT’S SOUTHERN SUBURBS, HASSAN FARAJ, FISHING MAN FISHING VIEW OF BEIRUT BUILDINGS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LEBANESE FROM BEIRUT’S SOUTHERN SUBURBS, HASSAN FARAJ, 27, SAYING: “Now, this is not strange for them. I mean, if they occupied Palestine 80 years ago, they will have been occupying Palestine for
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: BEIRUT CRISIS IRAN ISRAEL LEBANON MORNING
- Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
- City: BEIRUT, LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Middle East
- Reuters ID: LVA001916301042026RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Reacting to comments by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, a Lebanese man from Beirut's southern suburbs said on Wednesday (April 1) that Israel would fail to prevent people from returning to their villages in southern Lebanon.
Another resident, from a Christian neighbourhood in Beirut, voiced support for peace.
Katz said on Tuesday (March 31) the military would destroy all homes along Lebanon's border with Israel and bar 600,000 residents who fled southern Lebanon from returning to their villages.
He added that Israel would maintain control of southern Lebanon up to the Litani river, which runs about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Lebanon's border with Israel. The territory south of it makes up nearly a tenth of Lebanese land.
Lebanon is preparing for the possibility that hundreds of thousands displaced by Israeli strikes and evacuation orders will not return home in the long term, Lebanese social affairs minister Haneen Sayed said on Tuesday.
More than one million people have fled their homes and another 1,200 have been killed in Israeli strikes since March 2, when Lebanese armed group Hezbollah pulled Lebanon into the regional conflict by firing into Israel.
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