On 7 October 2023, simultaneous dawn attacks on several southern Israeli kibbutzim and at the Nova Music Festival took the State of Israel by surprise. Terrorists from Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups slaughtered a total of 1,139 men, women, and children in the Negev Desert, including Israeli civilians, foreign nationals, and members of the security forces, while another 254 were taken hostage. At the time of writing, an estimated 101 hostages remain in Gaza, which has become the scene of an ongoing retaliatory and devastating Israeli military response to the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
The day after the massacre, in ‘solidarity’ with Palestinians, Iran-backed Hezbollah militants unleashed a barrage of rockets, mortars, and drones from Lebanon, targeting border military outposts and civilian border settlements in northern Israel. These attacks have been repeated on most days ever since, requiring the evacuation of around 68,500 Israelis from northern Israel to safer locations. A major Israeli offensive against Hezbollah finally began with the detonation of weaponised pagers and radios on 17 and 18 September 2024, in which 39 people were killed and thousands injured, followed by an intensive air campaign to destroy Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in southern Lebanon, from 23 September onward. Under Operation Northern Arrows, Israeli ground forces then moved into southern Lebanon early on 1 October 2024, as the IDF began “limited, localised and targeted ground raids” to supplement air attacks. Civilians have since been displaced from their homes, foreign nationals have been evacuated from Lebanon, Beirut has been subjected to repeated air attacks, while Lebanon’s already struggling economy has been delivered its latest major external shock.
Israel has dealt Hezbollah a crippling blow in recent days. Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah since 1992, was killed on 28 September 2024, and several other senior commanders have met a similar fate, both before and after that date. Israel has also inflicted severe damage to Hezbollah’s command and control capabilities, much of which are concentrated in Beirut’s southern suburbs (Dahiyeh), and to its physical military infrastructure in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah appears to be no match to Israel’s superior military might and its Iron Dome air defence system, and there are also constraints on how far Iran is prepared to go in supporting its Lebanese proxy. But outright Israeli victory over a well-provisioned Hezbollah is by no means a foregone conclusion, and history teaches us that when one armed group in the Levant is neutralised, others readily emerge from the ashes of defeat. Meanwhile, as the present conflict continues, we can choose to reflect on Lebanon’s role in Israel’s history.
The long history of Israeli military intervention in Lebanon, disrupting the Israeli-Lebanese armistice of 1948, began with a raid on Beirut Airport in December 1968, in response to the first cross-border raids into its territory by guerrillas belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Following the Cairo Agreement of November 1969, the PLO transferred its main base from Jordan to Lebanon, setting up its headquarters in Beirut in 1971. This move exacerbated pre-existing tensions between Palestinian Sunni Muslim refugees and Lebanese Maronite Christians. The Maronite-Muslim Civil War of 1975 to 1990 broke out in April 1975 after Christian Phalangists attacked PLO guerrillas in Beirut. During Operation Litani, Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon in March 1978, stopping short of the Litani River, to counter increasing cross-border raids by the PLO. Israel then established a proxy Lebanese Christian militia-the South Lebanon Army, led by Major Saad Haddad- in the occupation zone. This Israeli incursion led to the deployment of an international peacekeeping force, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), in southern Lebanon.
Israel invaded Lebanon on 6 June 1982, in Operation Peace for the Galilee, also known as the First Lebanon War, once again in response to raids from the north on the Galilee region. Israel conclusively proved its superiority in the air, and its troops soon reached Beirut’s suburbs, laying siege to Beirut from June to August. The PLO was forced to withdraw from Beirut by 23 August 1982. Following the assassination of President Bashir Gemayel on 10 September 1982, Israeli forces allowed Christian Phalangist militiamen into the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, where a massacre of as many as 2,000 innocent civilians began six days later, to the wide condemnation of the international community. The eighteen-year Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon saw the emergence of Hezbollah, which was founded by Lebanese Shia clerics with support from Iran to oppose the occupying force. In January 1985, Israel announced a three-stage withdrawal from Lebanon, withdrawing from most of the occupied territories. It retained control, however, over a small border buffer zone until May 2000, when it unilaterally withdrew beyond the UN-designated Blue Line border back into Israel.
The abduction of two Israeli reserve soldiers in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah on 12 July 2006 led to Operation Just Reward and the Second Lebanon War- between Israel and Hezbollah. Israeli troops once again reached the banks of the Litani River. The conflict, which ended on 14 August 2006, led to the deaths of over a thousand civilians, mass internal displacements of Lebanese people, and the destruction of much of Lebanon’s infrastructure. Nearly 50 Israeli civilians and 121 Israeli soldiers were also killed. A Commission chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Eliyahu Winograd was to criticise both the planning and the outcomes of the 34-day war, which was claimed as a victory by both Hezbollah and Israel.
Since 2006, Hezbollah has created a network of tunnels that lead into northern Israel and set up an impressive missile arsenal in southern Lebanon, making it one of the most heavily armed, non-state military forces in the world and the only effective military force within the country. Hezbollah’s arsenal includes surface-to-surface unguided artillery rockets; anti-tank, anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles; and guided missiles for deeper penetration into Israel. It is designated a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and many other Western states, and the Gulf Arab states. Its very existence is compromised by UN Security Council Resolution 1559, adopted in 2004, which called for all Lebanese militias to disband and disarm.
Lebanon has served as a base, over many decades, for various Palestinian and other groups opposed to Israel. The failed state of Lebanon is currently hostage to Hezbollah, which has widespread support among Lebanese Shias and holds considerable clout as a political party, having first won seats in Parliament in 1992 and held Cabinet positions since 2005. Hezbollah also benefits from the backing of the Iranian and Syrian regimes. The situation in Lebanon is not helped by the uncompromising stance of the two main adversaries. Israel is determined to neutralise Hezbollah, which it sees as an existential threat, while Hezbollah in turn is committed to the destruction of the State of Israel, making the conflict a zero-sum game. For the time being, a peaceful settlement to the Third Lebanon War thus seems a distant prospect and, as usual, innocent civilians will continue to lose their lives until all concerned parties see sense and return to the negotiating table. The release of the Gazan hostages, and an unconditional ceasefire, would be good first steps in the return to normality.
Ashis Banerjee