August Crisis Update

Key Takeaways:

• Political tensions are high in Lebanon after the Council of Ministers effectively endorsed a Lebanese Armaed Forces (LAF) plan to disarm Hezbollah nationwide on September 5. The US has been pressuring the Lebanese state to impose a monopoly on arms by the end of the year, claiming that such measures could lead to reciprocal actions by Israel. Hezbollah has rejected calls to disarm nationwide, while Lebanon’s top leaders have called for Israel to temper its violations of the Cessation of Hostilities (CoH) in response to the cabinet’s initial steps toward disarmament in early August.
• Israel has said that it will not scale back its wider military operations until Lebanon starts taking concrete steps to disarm Hezbollah. The pace of the Israeli campaign targeting alleged Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure in Lebanon slowed slightly in August, with Israeli forces conducting 71 strikes throughout the month, down from 105 in July.
• The LAF began implementing a plan to disarm Palestinian armed factions in refugee camps on August 21 in Burj al-Barajneh. The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee (LPDC) has hailed the plan as a milestone, though some armed Palestinian factions, including Hamas, have refused to participate.
• The Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced that public schools will continue to operate four days a week during the 2025–26 educational year. The Ministry justified the decision based on resource and capacity constraints. Daily classes have been lengthened to 50 minutes, ostensibly to improve educational quality. Several public education associations criticized these measures, arguing that teachers’ compensation has not been adjusted to account for longer working hours.
• The Council of Ministers approved a draft law to provide supplementary pension payments of 12 million Lebanese pounds (LBP) to public sector retirees.
• Finance Minister Yassin Jaber approved a 250 million US dollar (USD) World Bank loan to rebuild infrastructure damaged in the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah War, with a focus on electricity and water networks, schools, and hospitals. Jaber also announced on August 18 that the government had allocated funds for debris removal, including LBP 200 billion for Beirut’s southern suburbs and LBP 600 billion for southern Lebanon.

By Crisis Analytics Team, Mercy Corps Lebanon