JUNE 10, 2026
Former Israeli PM Barak warns against prolonged occupation as troops operate again in southern Lebanon
Ehud Barak, who as Israeli prime minister ordered the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon in 2000, warned in an interview with NPR that a prolonged military presence in Lebanon would again be a mistake. Israeli forces are currently operating in southern Lebanon as part of what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describes as an effort to halt Hezbollah attacks on Israeli civilians in northern Israel. More than 3,600 Lebanese have been killed in the recent fighting, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.
Barak, now 84, spoke from his home in a Tel Aviv high-rise, arguing that the right question about the 2000 withdrawal was not why it happened then, but why it had not happened 15 years earlier. "For me, it was a stretched-out tragedy that had no explanation in a rational way as to why we were there," he said. Israeli forces have since returned to southern Lebanon and are reported to be positioned roughly 15 miles inside the country, according to NPR, which provided the sole sourcing for this story.
Netanyahu told his Cabinet this week that Israeli troops were striking Hezbollah "very forcefully" and that the group "is in retreat." Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military would remain in southern Lebanon. Ongoing polls cited by NPR show a solid majority of Israelis support the current military presence.
Barak said he understood Israel's need to respond to Hezbollah attacks, but argued that a limited operation should be paired with a "political process coordinated with the government of Lebanon and others." He described as "a total delusion" any notion that Israel could hold part of Lebanon indefinitely, noting that the United Nations would demand a withdrawal once fighting ended and that more than one million people displaced within Lebanon would want to return home.