Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati stated on Saturday, “We are in a state of war, and the threats we face are nothing but a form of psychological warfare.”

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Speaking from the headquarters of the South Litani Sector of the army in Tyre, Mikati added, “The threats we are witnessing are a form of psychological warfare, and the question that keeps recurring is: is there a war? Yes, we are in a state of war, and there are a large number of martyrs, both civilians and non-civilians, and many destroyed villages due to the Israeli aggression.”

He emphasized that “the main stop on our tour today is to check on the progress of official exams, but the obvious question is: if the army were not present in the south, would it be possible to conduct the exams?”

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He continued, “At every stop, we reaffirm that the army is the support and the shield of the nation in every sense of the word.”

Since the unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on Israel on October 7, the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire almost daily across Lebanon’s southern border.

Tensions between the two parties have escalated in recent days, raising growing fears of a wide-scale war that could ignite a regional conflict.

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The ongoing violence for more than eight months between Hezbollah and the Israeli army has resulted in the death of at least 482 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters and 94 civilians, according to a tally by Agence France-Presse.

On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.