Saad Hariri's comments come amid heightened tensions in the Middle East following some of the sharpest exchanges in years between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
"We hear a lot of Israeli threats day in and day out," Hariri said in an interview posted on the BBC's website on Wednesday. "Every day we have Israeli warplanes entering Lebanese airspace. This is something that is escalating, and this is something that is really dangerous." Hariri leads a fragile national unity government that includes two ministers from the Hezbollah, which fought Israel to a standstill in a month-long war in 2006.
Hariri said Lebanon, which has a notoriously fractious political system, would unite in the event of a fresh conflict with Israel.
"I think they're (Israelis) betting that there might be some division in Lebanon, if there is a war against us," Hariri said. "There won't be a division in Lebanon. We will stand against Israel. We will stand with our own people." Israel's foreign minister brushed aside the Lebanese leader's warning.
"As prime minister, he's simply a hostage of Hezbollah, which has veto power in his Cabinet," Avigdor Lieberman told Israel's Army Radio.
Asked whether there might be a new war involving Lebanon and Syria, Lieberman said: "I very much hope not. We have no interest in heating up the fronts with any of our neighbors. At the same time, we won't be a punching bag. And we won't shrug off vitriol that's directed at Israel," he said.
Lebanon's president warned Israel Tuesday that a war against Lebanon will be "no picnic." Last week, Syria's foreign minister accused Israel of "spreading an atmosphere of war" in the region after Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that the stalled peace process with Syria could result in an all-out regional war.
Walid Al-Moallem warned Israelis that "a war at this time will be transferred to your cities." Lieberman said the Syrians "crossed a red line" and warned Syria its army would be defeated and its regime would collapse in a future conflict.
Meanwhile, a Syria-based Hamas leader on Wednesday warned "there could be war at any time," as the row between Damascus and Jersualem continued to escalate.
"Israel is an aggressive country that cannot be trusted," Moussa Abu Marzouq, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau in Damascus, told DPA by telephone.
“There could be war any time. (Israel's) preparations for war have not ended since the Gaza war,” he claimed.
Abu Marzouq said that the recent war of words between Syria and Israel were part of the permanent, political and verbal hostilities between the two countries, as they "are in a state of war."
Syria and Israel never signed a peace treaty after their last war, fought over the course of 20 days in 1973.
"Israel is beating the drums of war day and night, whether in Gaza or southern Lebanon, so there could be a war," Abu Marzouq said on Wednesday.
His remarks followed an exchange of threats and insults between the two neighbors in recent weeks.
Israeli officials reacted angrily to Syrian President Bashar Assad's accusation that Israel was pushing the Middle East toward a new war and Syrian Foreign Minister's charge that Israel "was planting the seeds of war."
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman responded by saying that Assad should know that if he attacked Israel, the Israelis would not only defeat him, but would also topple his regime.
Several hours after Lieberman's comments, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his ministers to refrain from discussing Syria in the media.
The Israeli government later issued a statement saying that while the country wanted peace talks with Syria, without preconditions, it would also react forcefully against any threats.
Syrian Minister of Information Mohsen Bilal on Sunday said his country was ready to "stand in the face of Israeli ambitions" and to respond to Israeli "aggression."
