Alexandra Sharp
Foreign Policy / September 24, 2024
Israel’s ongoing bombardment is the deadliest assault on Lebanon since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
An Israeli airstrike killed at least six people, including a senior Hezbollah commander and potentially other militants, in a southern suburb of Beirut on Tuesday. Israeli forces said Ibrahim Qubaisi was the head of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile division, including its precision-guided missile unit. Lebanon’s Public Health Ministry did not confirm who was targeted or if the intended target was killed.
The strike was part of Israel’s ongoing bombardment of alleged Hezbollah facilities in Lebanon. “Anybody who has a missile in their living room will not have a home,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday. Last week, Israel announced that stopping attacks by the Iranian-backed militant group and returning Israeli residents to their homes in the country’s north near its border with Lebanon was an official war objective as it continues operations against Hamas, also supported by Tehran, in Gaza.
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets, missiles, and drones at Israel in solidarity with Palestinians; Israel has responded with strikes of its own on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including two waves of attacks on the group’s communication devices. Months of tit-for-tat exchanges have killed hundreds of people, mostly in Lebanon, and displaced tens of thousands more on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border. Despite international diplomatic efforts to calm tensions between the two longtime adversaries, the Israel-Hezbollah fight has only escalated and is now on the brink of becoming a full-fledged war. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said last week that his organization will keep attacking Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
Israeli forces bombed around 1,500 suspected Hezbollah targets on Monday, killing more than 550 people—including around 150 women and children and at least four health workers—and injuring more than 1,800 others. It was the deadliest assault on Lebanon since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
“If there will be a comprehensive all-out war between us and Hezbollah, there will not be Hezbollah and probably not Lebanon after it,” former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Foreign Policy in July.
Thousands more Lebanese civilians, particularly in the south, have fled their homes in recent days as Israel sent messages urging people to move away from “buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purposes.” Hezbollah warned the public on Tuesday not to scan a QR code on Israeli-dropped leaflets, which Israel says will provide residents with information on which buildings are set to be targeted. The militant group claimed, without evidence, that Israel was attempting to use the QR codes to spy on Hezbollah. “You must immediately destroy the leaflet because it is very dangerous and can retrieve information from your phone,” the group said.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military accused Hezbollah of sending some 55 rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel. Among their intended targets, Hezbollah said it fired at Israeli military bases, including one south of the Israeli city of Haifa, and at least five civilian communities. The largest hospital in northern Israel, located in Haifa, moved its entire operation to its underground parking lot on Monday to evade strikes.
Both U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan have urged all parties to de-escalate. Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, indicated on Tuesday that Israel was open to easing tensions in Lebanon.
Alexandra Sharp is the World Brief writer at Foreign Policy
