Lebanon war reopens old divisions as fears grow for country's unity
Months of fighting have devastated parts of southern Lebanon. Around 60 neighbourhoods have been completely destroyed, and Israel has established a de facto buffer zone covering 600 square kilometres of Lebanese territory.
Israel and Lebanon agreed on Wednesday to implement a new US-brokered ceasefire following talks in Washington. But Hezbollah, which was not part of the negotiations, rejected the deal, and Israeli officials said military operations would continue despite the agreement.
Yet the destruction has not united the country – instead deepening old rifts and reviving a debate many thought Lebanon had left behind.
Lebanon's divisions often follow sectarian lines. Supporters of Hezbollah describe its fight against Israel as a legitimate resistance movement, while opponents blame the group for dragging the country into a devastating conflict.
Those disagreements have fuelled wider arguments about Lebanon's future, including whether its sectarian power-sharing system – under which the president is a Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim – still works. People wave Hezbollah flags and an image of late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Zefta, southern Lebanon, on 17 April 2026, as displaced residents return to their villages following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The contrast was felt last weekend in two very different parts of the country.
On Saturday, applause broke out in a restaurant in the northern Christian-majority city of Batroun after a young man voiced support for Israel's military advance.
"We hope the Israeli army reaches Batroun. Our prayers and our hearts are with the Israel Defence Forces," said Rawad Nassar, a supporter of a Christian political party represented in parliament.
A day later, dozens of people gathered in Beirut's Martyrs' Square waving Hezbollah and Lebanese flags. The crowd included Sunnis, Druze and Christians as well as supporters of the Shiite movement.
Protesters called on authorities to suspend direct negotiations with Israel, accused political leaders of failing to protect the country and voiced support for Hezbollah's "resistance" against Israeli invasion.
Two Lebanons
Rather than creating unity in the face of a common threat, the conflict has deepened existing divisions and reopened debate about Lebanon's future among citizens, political leaders and religious communities.
Most Shiites continue to view Israel as an historic enemy and reject direct negotiations or a peace agreement with the country, according to a survey last month by the Beirut-based research firm Information International.
Lebanese law prohibits normalisation and contact with Israeli citizens or institutions. Israel is officially designated as an enemy state under arrangements that followed the 1989 Taif Agreement, which ended Lebanon's civil war and shaped the country's post-war political system.
Yet some politicians have publicly expressed different views. "Israel has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon," Kataeb Party MP Elias Hankache said in a recent interview.
That claim contrasts with statements made by senior Israeli politicians in recent weeks.
On 14 May, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir spoke of "a plan to colonise Lebanon", while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in late March that Israel should "extend its border with Lebanon to the Litani River", a proposal that would push the border well north of its current position.
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Hezbollah divide
The dispute now centres on Hezbollah's future role.
The movement insists it will not disarm before an Israeli withdrawal, an end to violations of Lebanese sovereignty and the release of Lebanese detainees held in Israel. Critics demand immediate and unconditional disarmament.
President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam hold Hezbollah responsible for the current war. Both support disarming the movement and have engaged in direct negotiations with Israel under US sponsorship.
Those talks have continued while Israeli military operations have expanded, and have brought little relief on the ground. Fighting has continued despite repeated rounds of negotiations, and efforts to secure a lasting ceasefire have repeatedly faltered. A building hit in an Israeli airstrike is seen through a shattered window of the Jabal Amel Hospital, in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, on 2 June 2026.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Lebanon's most senior Shiite state figure and leader of the Amal Movement, a powerful Shiite political party, supports indirect negotiations and says Hezbollah's weapons should be addressed through dialogue.
His position reflects a broader debate within Lebanon's Shiite community, which has borne much of the human cost of the war. Many Shiites feel abandoned by the state and betrayed by fellow citizens. The community accounts for around 35 percent of Lebanon's population.
Critics, meanwhile, accuse Hezbollah of creating a state within a state and maintaining a parallel army. Divisions have become so deep that both Lebanon's political system and its territorial unity appear to be under threat.
"Lebanon's successive crises have often taken on an existential character, if not for the country itself, then at least for one of its communities," former interior minister Ziad Baroud told RFI.
"Many times, our crises have tipped into radical change, where the country's unity was often on the agenda."
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Partition debate
Warnings about possible fragmentation have come from veteran Druze leader Walid Joumblatt. In an interview with French newspaper Le Monde published on Saturday, he denounced what he described as an Israeli plan for the "Balkanisation of the entire Middle East".
"Israel's wars aim to undermine the regional order inherited from the Sykes-Picot agreements," he said, referring to the post-World War I arrangements that helped shape the modern borders of the Middle East.
A separate interview with French left-wing daily Libération carried a similar warning, with Joumblatt cautioning Lebanese citizens against the risks of "partition and fragmentation".
Baroud said Lebanon's constitution leaves little room for such ideas. "The concept of unity is strongly enshrined in Article 1 of the Constitution: 'Lebanon is an independent, unified and sovereign state'," he said.
"Unity here implies indivisibility. Lebanon is perceived and lived as a unified state, but a plural one; indivisible, but diverse."
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Vatican warning
Political sources told RFI that Foreign Minister Joe Raggi, who is close to the Lebanese Forces party, discussed a federal Lebanon with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on 12 May.
The Vatican has long opposed any partition of Lebanon, including during the civil war.
After the meeting, Parolin stressed "the importance of preserving plurality and coexistence in Lebanon, protecting the Christian presence in the Middle East and promoting dialogue and national unity among Lebanese".
Ten days later, the Vatican recognised a miracle attributed to Maronite Patriarch Elias Howayek, who died in 1931, opening the way for his beatification.
Howayek is regarded as the founding father of Greater Lebanon, the state created after World War I, after arguing at the Versailles Conference for an independent Lebanon that would extend beyond Mount Lebanon.
The Holy See has long taken the position that partition would pose serious risks for the future of Christians in the Levant. People await the arrival of Pope Leo XIV at De la Croix Hospital in Jal el-Dib, Lebanon, on 2 December 2025.
Demographic fears
Supporters of partition often point to demographic change.
Christians now account for no more than about 25 percent of the population, according to the most generous estimates. Exact figures are unknown because Lebanon's last census was conducted in 1932.
Despite that decline, Christians continue to hold some of the state's most senior positions, including the presidency, army command and central bank governorship.
Parity between Christians and Muslims also continues in parliament, among senior military officers and in top public administration posts.
Some Christian politicians fear the Shia community could demand changes to the political system in exchange for Hezbollah's disarmament. One proposal discussed by critics is a system known as "three thirds", dividing power equally among Christians, Sunnis and Shiites.
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Neither Hezbollah nor Berri's Amal Movement has called for such a change and both continue to support the current system established by the Taif Agreement.
Despite that, calls for a return to a smaller Lebanon have become more common, particularly in some Christian political circles.
On 27 April, Lebanese Forces communications official Charles Jabbour wrote on X: "I have never been concerned with Lebanon's area of 10,452 square kilometres. What has always concerned me, and still concerns me today, is preserving my way of life in the place where I live."
The debate also touches on Lebanon's constitutional language about coexistence.
"In times of crisis, rejecting 'the other' becomes the easiest solution, especially when there is almost no strong state capable of guaranteeing diversity within unity," Baroud said.
"Our constitution reminds us that 'no legitimacy is recognised for any authority that contradicts the formula of living together'."
This story has been adapted from the original version in French by RFI's Beirut correspondent Paul Khalifeh.