Israeli wars may cost Lebanon over $27B, prime minister says

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Tuesday that the economic cost of Israel’s wars on Lebanon since 2023 may exceed $27 billion, stressing that reconstruction is beyond the state’s current capacity and requires Arab and international funding, Anadolu reports.

“We must also be frank with the Lebanese people: the scale of destruction is far greater than the state’s capacity,” Salam said in an address to parliament during a general debate on government policies.

“Therefore, reconstruction and recovery require, alongside state resources, Arab and international support and major external funding,” he added.

Salam linked obtaining funding to restoring trust and carrying out reforms.

“There can be no sustainable reconstruction without funding, no funding without trust, and no trust without a capable state. Reaching a capable state, of course, requires reform,” he said.

Addressing the Israeli assault on Lebanon, Salam said Beirut “did not choose the war that overtook the country last March.”

“We were not even asked for our opinion about entering it. It was imposed on us at a time when the deep wounds of the 2023-2024 war had not yet healed,” he said.

According to Salam, the World Bank estimated the total cost of the first war, which began on Oct. 8, 2023, at around $14 billion.

He said the figure includes about $7.2 billion in physical damage and around $6.8 billion in economic losses resulting from disrupted activity and declining production and revenues.

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As for the latest Israeli assault, which began last March, Salam said the World Bank estimates its direct cost so far at between $3 billion and $4 billion.

“Therefore, the two wars together have certainly cost Lebanon more than $20 billion, and their total cost may exceed $27 billion once the cost of the 2026 war is fully calculated,” Salam said.

“But these figures do not fully reflect the real cost,” he added.

The prime minister said the estimates do not account for the effects of brain drain, loss of investments, the impact on the education sector, declining land and asset values, and delayed recovery from Lebanon’s financial crisis, which has continued since 2019.

He said the estimate also does not include the broader economic cost beyond direct physical destruction, which ranges, according to preliminary estimates, between $4 billion and $5 billion.

Lebanon has faced two deadly assaults since October 2023, causing widespread destruction, major damage to infrastructure and homes, and worsening the country’s economic losses.

On June 26, Beirut and Tel Aviv signed a US-sponsored framework agreement in Washington that provides for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory and the deployment of the Lebanese army in areas vacated by Israeli forces.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Despite the agreement, Israel continues to launch attacks on southern Lebanon and still occupies areas in the south, some for decades and others seized during recent wars and military operations.

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