Motasem A. Dalloul
Middle East Monitor / November 28, 2024
After 53 days of intensified brutal Israeli strikes on Lebanon to destroy the military abilities of the Lebanese Hezbollah, a ceasefire brokered by the US and other countries came into effect at 4am local time (02:00 GMT) yesterday.
Hezbollah has been involved in resistance action along with the Palestinian resistance in the occupied Gaza Strip from the beginning of the ongoing Israeli genocide.
Due to Hezbollah’s resistance, tens of thousands of Jewish settlers were evacuated from their homes in northern Israeli settlements. These settlers have caused problems for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has recently updated the goals of his ongoing war to include the return of the settlers in the north to their settlements.
Since the start of its involvement in the resistance action, Hezbollah had reiterated that its participation in the resistance against the Israeli occupation was part of a united action that involved the Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza and others in the region —resistance axis in the region.
The resistance in the region consists of Hezbollah in south Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq in addition to the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. All but the Palestinian resistance are Shia Muslims and are Iran’s proxies.
Iran and all of its proxies have reiterated that they will continue fighting the Israeli occupation until it ends its attacks on Gaza and withdraws its forces from the enclave, adding that it is the Palestinian resistance which is leading the battle against the occupation.
Hezbollah has suffered massive losses during the battle, with experts claiming it needed decades to rebuild its power. In spite of this, it continued to stress that its fate is strongly tied to the fate of Gaza, and that it would not lay down its arms before the Israeli occupation stops its aggression and ends the occupation of Gaza.
Until the day before the ceasefire was announced, Hezbollah had condemned all Israeli attempts to distance it from Gaza, and denied all reports that said it would end its resistance action before the end of Gaza’s ordeal.
However, it agreed to a ceasefire which states that its forces would withdraw some kilometers from the Lebanese borders with Israel, allowing the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers to take control of the area, while Israeli occupation forces would withdraw from the region within 60 days.
As a Palestinian, I would like to thank Hezbollah and any party that exerted any efforts to support our cause, but I think that Hezbollah has failed the Palestinian resistance in the blockaded enclave. It did not fulfil its pledge. Its resistance ended before the Israeli aggression on Gaza was stopped.
As a resident of Gaza, I did not trust Hezbollah since it involved itself in the attacks on Israel. Even after Israel carried out the pager attack and assassinated the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s caused little damage to the occupation state. It only changed its target base in the last round of attacks before the announcement of the ceasefire agreement which coincided with Israel escalating its attacks.
I feel everything was engineered between Hezbollah, Iran, Israel and their broker —the United States. Even the retaliatory Iranian attacks were completely engineered by the US as none of them caused real harm to Israel.
I also believe that Iran sold the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to Israel. Iran and its proxies gave Israel the pretext to continue its brutal war on the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
Israel got what it needed, propaganda that it is fighting an existential war by mega powers encircling it and was given time to carry out its war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Part of the world supported Israel under the pretext that it is fighting an existential war and declared it was acting in “self-defence”. Gaza was erased as the main focus, with the scene shifting to Lebanon, Yemen and Syria.
Now, Gaza stands alone. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may now slow the war and seek a prisoner swap deal. The world would then not focus on the Israeli occupation and destruction of Gaza, but ask about the delivery of aid and how to “improve” the lives of the over two million displaced persons, rehabilitating hospitals, schools and homes, reopening the Rafah Crossing for patients and such issues.
In a few months, the world will forget Gaza and Israel would maintain its status quo —military governance over Gaza and de facto global acceptance of its oppression of the Palestinians in the Strip, as we have seen play out in the occupied West Bank.
Motasem A. Dalloul is MEMO’s correspondent in the Gaza Strip
