Aoun made the remarks during a meeting with a delegation from the municipality of Deir Mimas, a village in southern Lebanon.
He said the resilience of southern residents who remain in their homes, places of worship and livelihoods represented an expression of faith in Lebanon and a national commitment.
Aoun described residents of border areas who remain in their villages as the “first line of defense” for Lebanon’s sovereignty, stressing that people in the south were “guardians of the land.”
“The state is their support and will protect them and will not abandon a single inch of their land,” Aoun said.
He also reiterated that the state would stand alongside southern residents, both those who have remained in their communities and those forcibly displaced, until the end of the Israeli
occupation.