New Poll Shows Most Lebanese Oppose War With Israel, Favor Hezbollah’s Disarmament
Last week, civilian representatives from both countries led the first direct talks between the two states in more than four decades
By Taylor Thomas / The Media Line
Everyone is waiting with bated breath. A rumor circulated that once Pope Leo XIV left Lebanon, Israel would return in full force to resume the war against Hezbollah. The pontiff departed on December 2, yet militarily little has changed: Israeli warplanes continue bombing the south and east of the country, and the presence of its drones can be felt in different parts of the territory.
But the fear is still there. “Here in Lebanon, you cannot really have a normal life, because it just doesn’t depend on you,” said Lara Mitr, a young Lebanese woman. “Maybe tomorrow there is a war, even though you don’t want it,” she told The Media Line.
That’s exactly what the Lebanese do not want: another war. According to a new Gallup poll, around 86% of the Lebanese population opposes another direct conflict with Israel in support of the Palestinians. Some 79% believe their army should be the only force in the country allowed to hold weapons, a clear message to Hezbollah asking it to disarm. That is not what the Shiite community, the leading supporter of Hezbollah as a political party and armed group, wants.
“I don’t want the resistance [as Hezbollah is known in Lebanon] to hand over its weapons,” Noura, a young woman from the southern suburbs of Beirut, told The Media Line. “Giving up our weapons is like inviting them [the Israelis] to occupy our land,” she said.
Israel has maintained military positions on five strategic hills inside southern Lebanon since early 2024, holding those posts well beyond the February 2025 withdrawal deadline.
UN Interim Force in Lebanon officials say Israel has built walls over the border, the Blue Line, rendering around 1 acre of Lebanese territory inaccessible to Lebanese people, in violation of Security Council resolution 1701 and Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Israel denies the claim. When asked by AFP about it, the Israeli military responded, “The wall does not cross the Blue Line.”
Gallup reported that the survey was conducted over two weeks, from June to July, and included 1,010 respondents. The company that carried out the poll clarified that the in-person survey was not conducted in areas such as Beirut’s southern suburbs due to Hezbollah’s “strict control” in that region.
Hezbollah’s potential disarmament “would mark a major shift in Lebanon’s security framework,” Gallup said in its findings. Besides claiming to defend Lebanon, Hezbollah has justified its need to hold weapons to maintain its role in the Middle East’s “axis of resistance,” which lends support to the Palestinians, a position most Lebanese do not support.
“Don’t get me wrong: I think that what the Palestinians are suffering in Gaza and the occupied West Bank is unacceptable and should stop immediately,” Marie Asfar, a 55-year-old Lebanese woman, told The Media Line. Asfar refers to Israeli operations in the Strip that the Ministry of Health in Gaza says have killed more than 70,000 people, and that many states and international organizations, as well as a UN-mandated independent international commission of inquiry, consider to be a genocide. In the West Bank, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the UN, and thousands of acres of land have been taken by Israeli authorities or settlers.
“But why does it have to be at our expense?” Asfar asked. Since October 8, 2023, more than 4,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, and infrastructure valued at millions of dollars has been destroyed.
Only 10% of Lebanese believe their country should directly engage with Israel in support of the Palestinian cause, and 14% want to support the Palestinians indirectly, through weapons or other equipment, while 81% oppose any such involvement.
Resentment over past experiences also shapes attitudes. “Also, the Palestinians behaved very badly during their time here in Lebanon,” said Mitr, referring to the period of the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990).
Amid what the World Bank has called one of the worst economic crises in the world since the 1850s, the low support for providing assistance to the Palestinians does not surprise many Lebanese. Nearly two-thirds of the population opposes economic aid to the Palestinians, while around 31% supports it. “The situation is already hard for us; imagine if we have to help someone else,” Mitr added.
This rejection of war by Lebanese society is reflected in the actions of its leaders. Last week, civilian representatives from Lebanon and Israel led the first direct talks between the two Mediterranean countries in more than four decades. The two sides joined a session of the US-chaired ceasefire monitoring committee in Naqoura, which convened for about three hours along the Blue Line, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel.
Lebanon’s prime minister, Nawaf Salam, was very clear about the intentions of the meeting, saying that the negotiations were aimed solely at “the cessation of hostilities,” the “release of Lebanese hostages,” and “the complete Israeli withdrawal” from Lebanese territory. These are not peace talks and “normalization is tied to a peace process,” he insisted.
Rejection of war by the Lebanese population does not imply acceptance of a normalization agreement with Israel. “When people talk about it, I get really mad,” Yara Arslan, a 27-year-old Lebanese citizen, told The Media Line. “Israel has hurt us so much; how can you even think of normalizing relations with them? I don’t want anything to do with them,” she added, visibly upset.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has expressed its desire to have more countries in the region, such as Lebanon and Syria, join the Abraham Accords. Beirut has been very clear about its stance on several occasions, stating that such a move is very unlikely. Daily reality in Lebanon is that Israeli bombing continues, killing more than 340 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The Israeli military said that, in addition to hundreds of airstrikes amid the ceasefire, ground troops have conducted over 1,200 raids and other small operations in southern Lebanon.
According to Gallup’s interpretation of the poll, Hezbollah “has lost its military strength, and the party’s key international backers—Syria’s Bashar Assad regime and Iran—are either gone or considerably weakened, leaving the group without critical outside backing,” the pollsters explained.
Its supporters do not seem to care about that. “The best tool the resistance has is its people, us, and we are not going to abandon them,” Marwa, a young Lebanese woman from the southern suburbs of Beirut, told The Media Line.
Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
