Shireen Akram-Boshar
Truthout / August 28, 2024
Israel’s cross-border strikes have already killed hundreds of civilians. Now, Lebanese people fear there’s more to come.
For months, Lebanon has been on edge as cross-border strikes between Israel and Hezbollah rattle the country. On October 8 of last year, Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel to show its support for Hamas; in the months that followed, its objectives changed to pressuring Israel to end the war on Gaza. Israel has bombarded Lebanon with greater ferocity, turning the south of Lebanon into a war zone and increasingly threatening to strike the capital, Beirut. According to Beirut-based journalist Lara Bitar, “The belief that war is imminent changes daily, if not hourly.”
The fear of intensification reached a fever pitch early on Sunday, when Israel and Hezbollah exchanged heavy fire. Israel used over 100 warplanes to bombard over 40 sites in Lebanon, claiming that its series of strikes were pre-emptive to prevent a Hezbollah attack — a line that The New York Times and other publications quickly repeated. Hezbollah then fired over 300 rockets and drones, targeting Israeli military facilities in what it said was retaliation for the assassination of senior military leader Fuad Shukr last month. Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari claimed that Israel’s attack was in “self-defense” and declared that Israel had successfully “thwarted the bulk of the attack Hezbollah had planned.” Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah refuted Israel’s claim that its attack on Lebanon was pre-emptive, calling it an act of aggression, and insisting that it had no effect on Hezbollah’s military capabilities.
This back-and-forth, the most intense bombardment in either direction in months, marked a significant escalation between the two. But both Israel and Hezbollah quickly declared that they had concluded their attacks for the time being, easing fears of possible all-out war, at least for the coming days.
The region has been on the precipice of a wider war for the past month, ever since a pair of high-profile assassinations. On July 31, Israel killed Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas — who had been a part of ceasefire negotiations — while he was attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president in Tehran. The day before that, Israel assassinated Fuad Shukr. Ever since then, Lebanon has experienced near-daily Israeli airstrikes and an uncertainty about the future in a country already mired in precarity.
The vast majority of Israel’s attacks since October have focused on southern Lebanon; however, sporadic attacks have reached as far north as the Beqaa Valley in the northeast of the country. Israel’s July 30 assassination of Fuad Shukr was its second attack on the capital city of Beirut since October 7 — it had assassinated Saleh al-Arouri, a Hamas leader, in Beirut on January 2 of this year.
Before this weekend’s bombardment, Bitar told Truthout, “the mood in Beirut is drastically different from the south of the country, where war has been raging since early October. There, across two dozen towns and villages, over 15,000 homes have been partially or fully destroyed and nearly 100,000 people displaced since the beginning of the war.”
The outlet Bitar founded, The Public Source, has been tracking the death toll from Israel’s strikes in Lebanon. By their count, more than 600 people have been killed by Israel, 140 of them civilians, including journalists and aid workers. Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s rockets have killed 24 Israelis, the majority of them soldiers.
More than 600 people have been killed by Israel, 140 of them civilians, including journalists and aid workers. Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s rockets have killed 24 Israelis, the majority of them soldiers.
“At times, it seems like Israel is itching to launch an all-out war that would bring the same level of devastation we’re seeing in the south to the rest of the country,” Bitar said. “And at times, we are given the impression that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has agreed to stop obstructing the ceasefire negotiations and that a resolution is imminent.”
The back-and-forth escalations between Israel and Hezbollah reflect a shaky balance of forces in the region. Netanyahu, unwilling to end the war in Gaza, hopes to broaden the war across the region to detract attention from his atrocities in Gaza, bolster his support within Israel, and bring in global powers on his side against Hezbollah and Iran.
However, the U.S., Israel’s principal backer, has cautioned against an escalation of regional war, precluding Israel from the support it needs to launch an all-out war. Nonetheless, despite U.S. reluctance for a wider war, mere days after Israel’s assassinations of Shukr and Haniyeh, the Pentagon announced that the U.S. military would be sending additional warships and fighter jets to the region, in defense of Israel — the instigator of the aggression.
For its part, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised on August 6 to respond to Israel’s assassination of Shukr in Beirut, and since then, numerous states have tried to find a way to ease tensions. While Hezbollah’s August 25 fire on Israel was in part in retaliation for Shukr’s assassination, Nasrallah said afterwards that future strikes were not out of the question. Netanyahu more brazenly declared, “this is not the end of the story.” Hezbollah’s aim is in large part to keep Israel on edge, as long as Israel’s assault on Gaza continues.
“Some are terrified at the prospect of a prolonged and open war that would destroy vital infrastructure and make an already hard life in Lebanon even more difficult, while others are going on with business as usual,” Bitar told Truthout. “A very small minority is hoping for a war that they believe has the potential to expedite the end of the Zionist project in the region.”
Over the past five years, Lebanon has experienced one of the world’s most severe economic crises — today, 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. From 2019-20, a popular uprising attempted to push back against the sectarian political system that dominates the country, but was largely smothered and defeated in the wake of the COVID pandemic, and a crisis of political negligence resulting in the Beirut port explosion in August 2020. Additionally, Lebanon hosts a quarter of a million Palestinian refugees and over a million Syrian refugees — nearly 25 percent of the country’s population — who face discrimination within the country while also suffering from Israeli attacks.
An Israeli strike in Nabatieh, in southern Lebanon, on August 17, for example, killed 10 Syrians. Israel claimed it was targeting a Hezbollah weapons depot, but locals in the area denied that claim. Locals explained that the area was an industrial area, and relatives of some of those who were killed said they were factory workers.
In the decades after 1982, Hezbollah and Israel attacked each other, but each time, Hezbollah largely targeted Israeli soldiers, while Israel massacred Lebanese civilians in large numbers.
Yazan al-Saadi, a Syrian living in Beirut, told Truthout that ever since October, life in Lebanon has been “surreal” and “bleak.”
“Myopic interests rule the day, and in Lebanon, that manifests itself with sectarian politics, xenophobia towards refugees — particularly Syrians — and being completely unprepared for likely Israeli attacks in the near future,” al-Saadi said.
Israel’s attacks on Lebanon also bring up a not-so-distant historical memory of prior Israeli wars on the country, most notably in 1982 and 2006. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon to attack the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which was based there at the time. Israel occupied South Lebanon, but also invaded and besieged Beirut. In September 1982, right-wing Lebanese forces in cahoots with (and under cover of) the Israeli military massacred thousands of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut. Israel’s occupation of South Lebanon lasted until 2000.
Perhaps ironically, Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon helped bring about the formation of Hezbollah, which was established that same year in response to the war. Hezbollah’s role in the liberation of the south from Israel’s occupation in 2000 marked the peak of its popularity, both in the country and across the region.
In the decades after 1982, Hezbollah and Israel attacked each other, but each time, Hezbollah largely targeted Israeli soldiers, while Israel massacred Lebanese civilians in large numbers. In 1993, Hezbollah killed five Israeli soldiers, while Israel killed 118 Lebanese civilians. In 1996, Israel killed over 100 Lebanese civilians in the Qana Massacre, when it targeted a UN compound in southern Lebanon after claiming that anyone who remained in the south of the country would be considered connected to Hezbollah. And in 2006, Hezbollah killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others, demanding the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel in exchange for the soldiers. Israel responded with massive and indiscriminate bombardment. This became the 2006 war, lasting over a month; over 1,200 Lebanese were killed, the majority civilians, while 158 Israelis were killed, the majority soldiers.
For decades, Israel has conducted wars on Lebanon to attack Palestinian resistance, and any attempts to confront and push back on its settler-colonial project. Israel’s expansionist and genocidal drive, while focused on Palestinians, also translates to war on its Arab neighbours.
Hezbollah and Israel’s latest back-and-forth this past weekend occurred just after a round of ceasefire talks in Cairo concluded with no agreement. Hamas reiterated that it wants to move forward with the July 2 proposal, which it previously agreed to, but Israel has since July continued to add new stipulations, like retaining its military forces within Gaza.
As Lara Bitar concludes, “The threat of an all-out war will continue to loom over the region” so long as the status quo continues — with Israel continuing its genocidal assault on Gaza and, more fundamentally, with Israel “continu[ing] to exist as an expansionist settler-colony” in the region, “with the unconditional backing of the U.S.”
Shireen Akram-Boshar is a socialist writer, editor and Middle East/North Africa solidarity activist
