The Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, denied on Friday statements attributed to him by pro-Hezbollah media, according to which his government intended to pay compensation to the victims of Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon. He clarified that it is impossible, under the current circumstances, to take any measures to assess and determine the damages and costs of the war. “All rumors on this subject are false, especially since everyone knows the limited financial capabilities of the state,” Mikati said during a visit to Tripoli.
As a reminder, Najib Mikati was quoted on Thursday in a pro-Hezbollah newspaper as saying that efforts were underway to secure the necessary funds to compensate the victims of Israeli attacks and to determine the payment modalities once the war is over.
According to the same press organ, the government had planned to pay $20,000 to the families of each person killed and $40,000 for each completely destroyed house.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of March 5, there were 90,859 displaced persons in Lebanon, 306 killed (including 51 civilians), and 820 injured. The UN agency’s website also cites 60,000 people still living in the “conflict” area. According to satellite images, the total area of land affected by the bombings is 1,897 hectares. However, the number of destroyed homes is not clear.
Many reactions, mostly hostile, followed the intention of compensation attributed to the caretaker prime minister.
MP Kassem Hachem, a member of the parliamentary bloc of development and liberation, headed by Speaker Nabih Berri, criticized those who opposed the possibility of the government compensating the families of victims of Israeli bombings and those whose homes, lands, or crops were destroyed.
MP Nadim Gemayel (Kataeb) criticized this decision on his X account, if it proves true. Recalling that the caretaker prime minister had previously stated that the decision of war and peace is not in the hands of the state, he questioned the validity of an official compensation plan for “damage caused by Hezbollah’s adventures in the south.” Gemayel continued, “Let Hezbollah and Iran themselves pay compensation.”
The MP threatened to “resort to civil disobedience and stop paying taxes to the Lebanese state, which, despite its bankruptcy, would spend money because of the adventures of a militia in the service of a foreign agenda.”
The press office of the Lebanese Forces (LF) issued a very long statement to “clarify certain points,” regardless of the accuracy of the statements attributed to the caretaker prime minister. (The statement was published on Friday before Mikati’s clarification.)
According to the statement, the LF do not oppose the idea that “it is the duty of the state to compensate any citizen harmed by a war that Israel may have launched against Lebanon or that the Lebanese government itself may have declared.”
However, the Lebanese Forces strongly oppose the government compensating for damage caused by a war launched by Hezbollah, “which has an Iranian agenda and did not refer to the Lebanese government.”
The statement advocates “active opposition to the fact that Lebanese, affected by the economic crisis caused by Hezbollah’s weapons, pay the price of an Iranian war.” According to the LF, compensation “would encourage the pro-Iranian group to declare further wars.”
