Macron’s statement on Saturday came as Israel continued its attacks, killing more than 800 people in Lebanon and displacing some 800,000. Israel launched strikes on Lebanon after the Hezbollah group fired rockets in response to the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on March 1, a day after the United States and Israel started the war. Israel and Lebanon have been technically at war since 1948, when thousands of Palestinians took refuge in Lebanon. On March 2, the Lebanese prime minister banned Hezbollah’s military activities and restricted its role to the public sphere. Hezbollah and Israel agreed to a US-backed ceasefire in November 2024 following more than a year of cross-border fighting, including two months of an all-out war in which Israel killed the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The air raids have forced more than 830,000 people out of their homes – about 14 percent of the country’s population.