Hezbollah has long been considered Iran's first line of defense in case of a war with Israel. But since Israel launched its massive barrage against Iran, triggering the ongoing Israel-Iran war, the Lebanese militant group has stayed out of the fray — even after the U.S. entered the conflict Sunday with strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

A network of powerful Iran-backed militias in Iraq has also remained mostly quiet.

Hezbollah has condemned the U.S. strikes on Iran in a statement but did not threaten to join in Tehran’s retaliation.

“The blatant deceit and deception practiced by U.S. President Donald Trump, driven by illusions of control and arrogance ... confirms that the United States of America, along with the tyrants of arrogance, is a threat to the security and stability of the Islamic Republic,” the statement said.

The United States embassy in Lebanon said that the State Department on Sunday ordered the departure of family members and non-emergency U.S. government personnel from Lebanon, after Washington launched strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

"On June 22, 2025, the U.S. Department of State ordered the departure of family members and non-emergency U.S. government personnel from Lebanon due to the volatile and unpredictable security situation in the region," said a statement on the U.S. embassy website.

An Israeli airstrike has targeted the transmission building of Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV on the heights of the Toumat Niha area, which overlooks West Bekaa and the southern region of Iqlim al-Tuffah, state-run National News Agency reported on Sunday.

President Joseph Aoun said Sunday that Lebanon does not want to “pay the price of more wars” and that “there is no national interest” in joining the Israel-Iran war after the U.S. strikes on Iran’s key nuclear sites.

“Lebanon, with its leadership, parties and people, realizes today more than ever that it has preciously paid for the wars that erupted on its soil and in the region, and it does not want to pay any further and there is no national interest in that,” Aoun said.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that Lebanon needs to stay away from any possible regional spillover from the conflict, after the U.S. targeted Iran's main nuclear sites.

“It is increasingly important for us to adhere strictly to the supreme national interest, which is the need to avoid Lebanon being ... drawn into the ongoing regional confrontation in any way,” Salam said in a post on X.

A former bodyguard for Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the slain leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah, was killed Saturday in an Israeli strike in Iran, a Hezbollah official said.

For more than a week, Israel has been carrying out waves of air attacks on Iranian targets in the foes' worst confrontation in history.

Syrian authorities arrested Wassim al-Assad, a cousin of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, the interior ministry said Saturday, in one of the most high-profile arrests since the former president's ouster.

Israel's military said Saturday its navy hit a Hezbollah "infrastructure site" near the southern Lebanese city of Naqoura, a day after Israel's defense minister warned the Lebanese armed group against entering the Iran-Israel war.

"Overnight, an Israeli Navy vessel struck a Hezbollah 'Radwan Force' terrorist infrastructure site in the area of Naqoura in southern Lebanon," the Israeli army said in a statement.

The Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli strike on south Lebanon's al-Abbasiyeh killed one person, as Israel said it killed a member of Hezbollah.

Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes on Lebanon despite a November ceasefire with Hezbollah and an unprecedented bombing campaign it launched on Iran last week.