Introduction
The History of Israel Hezbollah crisis is drenched with war and other military confrontations. Starting from 1982 when Israel first invaded Lebanon in response to attacks launched by PLO (Palestine Liberalization Organization) from Lebanese soil. The conflict has grown more and more complex, and it was further aggravated by the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the killing of Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah
History
The Formation of Israel
Social and political developments in Europe convinced Jews they needed their own country, and their ancestral homeland seemed like the right place to establish it. Between 1896 and 1948, hundreds of thousands of Jews resettled from Europe to what was then British-controlled Palestine, including large numbers forced out of Europe during the Holocaust. Many Arabs saw the influx of Jews as a European colonial movement, and the two peoples fought bitterly. The British couldn’t control the violence, and in 1947 the United Nations voted to split the land into two countries (Balfour Declaration)
The Formation of Hezbollah
Hezbollah, political party and militant group that first emerged during Lebanon’s civil war as a militia after the Israeli invasion of that country in 1982. Since the 2000s it has been one of the foremost political forces in Lebanon. Following the Islamic Revolution in Shiʿi-majority Iran in 1979 and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, a group of Lebanese Shiʿi clerics formed Hezbollah with the goal of driving Israel from Lebanon and establishing an Islamic republic there.It coordinated its efforts closely with Iran, from which it acquired substantial logistical support, and drew its manpower largely from disaffected younger, more radical members of Amal (Lebanon’s political party and militia) .Throughout the 1980s Hezbollah engaged in increasingly sophisticated attacks against Israel and fought in Lebanon’s civil war (1975–90), repeatedly coming to blows with Amal. During that time, Hezbollah allegedly engaged in terrorist attacks including kidnappings and car bombings, directed predominantly against Westerners
The deep-rooted history of conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has deep roots in the history of South Lebanon, particularly the bloody and protracted struggle that lasted from 1985 to 2000.In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon once again, marking a significant escalation. Israel’s objective was to drive the PLO (Palestine Liberalization Organization) out of Lebanon entirely, and this operation culminated in a full-scale invasion reaching Beirut. By 1985, Israel had withdrawn from most of Lebanon but maintained a 15-20 km wide security zone in South Lebanon, designed to prevent cross-border attacks. This area was patrolled by the South Lebanon Army (SLA), a Christian militia allied with Israel. Yet the occupation, which was meant to be a short-term measure, transformed into a lengthy entanglement. It sparked resistance from various groups in Lebanon, particularly Hezbollah. Hezbollah, leveraging its guerrilla tactics, turned the occupation into a war of attrition. The group’s resilience, despite Israel’s superior firepower, left the Israeli government with limited options.
The 1985-2000 South Lebanon conflict, then, was not just a localized struggle between Israel and Hezbollah. It was a pivotal chapter in the broader Middle Eastern narrative, one that demonstrated the power of non-state actors to influence regional politics and security.
The ramifications of this conflict continue to reverberate, shaping the volatile relationship between Israel and Hezbollah and leaving a lasting impact on Lebanon’s political landscape.
The Current Situation
The reason behind continuous bombings of Beirut by Israel
Israel began a series of attacks against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah with pagers and walkie talkies that exploded. They then launched airstrikes targeting the group’s leadership. One strike killed Hezbollah’s leader of over thirty years, Hassan Nasrallah
The attacks are an effort to prevent Hezbollah from continuing to fire rockets at northern Israel, which it has been doing since the war in Gaza began. Israel’s airstrikes are continuing to widen, and their military is massing at the border, pointing to a possible ground invasion.
Israeli troops laid the groundwork for what it called a “limited ground operation” in recent days, ramping up airstrikes that have killed hundreds of people, destroyed homes and displaced about 1 million people in Lebanon. Israeli officials have said the goal of the operations against Hezbollah is to enable roughly 60,000 people forced to flee their homes in the northern part of the country to return. They were driven away — under evacuation orders in many cases — by a hail of rocket, drone and missile fire launched by Hezbollah militants inside Lebanon.
Analysis of the current situation
The commonly held assumption that Israel either wants or needs to invade to achieve a decisive outcome against Hezbollah is a fallacy. This is a case of fighting the last war—a trap that Hezbollah appears to have fallen into, prompting it to prepare for a repeat of its 2006 war with Israel that focused primarily on the southern border zone. A related fallacy is the assumption that a full-scale war would look fundamentally different than the supposedly limited war currently being waged by Israel against Hezbollah. Israel’s ability to deploy superior military firepower and technology—amplified by the integration of artificial intelligence into its weapons platforms—and to inflict extensive damage without a single Israeli soldier setting foot inside Lebanon shows that the conventional distinction between “full-scale” and “limited” war in this particular conflict has become moot. For all the pain being inflicted on Hezbollah, the real threat to the group lies within Lebanon’s domestic politics, where the blows to its credibility as a potent and professional military force will inevitably generate challenges to its position within the country’s sectarian power structure
The involvement of Iran in this crisis
Iran’s support for Hezbollah is no secret. From an initial investment in training and arming the budding militia in the early 1980s, Iran now reportedly provides an estimated $700 million to Hezbollah annually, according to the U.S. Department of State. This funding facilitates a spectrum of activities, from military operations against Israel to maintaining a vast network of social services in Lebanon.
Iran’s military strategy is based on deterrence, relying on armed proxies
like Hezbollah to confront Israel so it doesn’t have to. Now Israel is dismantling those proxies, and Iran faces a decision – whether to reinforce Hezbollah or step into the fray. Iran’s focus on engagement and its hesitance to intervene on the ground demonstrate the limited military options available to reestablish deterrence with Israel after a year of heightened hostilities in the region, analysts and diplomats say. Iran instead of a full ground operation has recently fired missiles towards Israel as per the IDF (Israel Defense Force)
The Impact on Lebanon’s People and Economy
The history of human rights violations in this conflict
Israel’s air raid followed two days of attacks in which Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies exploded, killing 37 people and wounding thousands. Those attacks were widely believed to have been carried out by Israel. the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told the Security Council that the attack on Hezbollah communications devices violated international law and could constitute a war crime. In 2006 In Lebanon, Israel’s Air Force attacked more than 7,000 targets in Lebanon, its Navy conducted 2,500 bombardments, and its Army fired tens of thousands of shells and rockets . As a result, 1,191 people were killed and 4,405 wounded. One-third of the dead and wounded, and close to half of the IDPs (internally displaced persons), were children.In Israel, four hospitals were damaged and the patients from one psychiatric hospital were evacuated to central Israel. Many spent entire days in overcrowded, unhygienic shelters, and had very limited access to medical services.
The hardships of people due to continuous bombings
The huge attack that killed Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah and an unknown number of civilians after it levelled several residential buildings, leaving thousands more destitute. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), one million people have been uprooted from their homes due to Israel’s attacks, 90 percent of them in the last week. Thousands of people are sleeping in mosques, under bridges and in the streets. But the crisis could get even worse now that Israel has begun a ground offensive.
How this conflict has further deepened the Lebanese economic crisis
For nearly three years, Lebanon has been assailed by the most devastating, multi-pronged crisis in its modern history. The unfolding economic and financial crisis that started in October 2019 has been further exacerbated by the dual economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, and the massive Port of Beirut explosion in August 2020.Lebanese economist Roy Badaro says before the recent escalation of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, a small segment of the population was slowly recovering from the economic crisis. However, with this escalation, conditions could worsen significantly. Agriculture in Lebanon has been severely impacted by the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, as the fighting has caused soil pollution, displaced farmers, disrupted supply chains, and damaged infrastructure, threatening organic farming. In southern Lebanon and Beqaa, nearly 500,000 people have been displaced since Israel intensified its military campaign, according to Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib, adding to the around 110,000 who had already been displaced before. The increase in displaced people contributes to Lebanese despair and worsens the country’s social and economic conditions.
How is Hezbollah benefiting from the Lebanese Economic Crisis
Hezbollah has used Lebanon’s ongoing political and financial crisis to acquire large gold reserves from its citizens living in poverty, doing so in a way that offers the group the chance to bolster both its popularity and its asset reserves in preparation for a possible war with Israel.Many of Lebanon’s citizens obtain personal loans from Hezbollah’s shadow bank/charity, the Al-Qard Al-Hasan Association (AQAH), giving the organization any gold in their possession as collateral. This has become an essential source of cash for individuals in a country where more than 80 percent of the population lives in poverty.Hezbollah is also involved in international gold smuggling with the Iranian government. In 2020, evidence showed that Hezbollah controlled multiple gold mines in southeastern Venezuela. In May 2022, Israeli intelligence found that dozens of kilograms of Venezuelan gold were sent to Tehran on an Iranian Mahan Air flight in exchange for oil, with the proceeds from this later transferred to Hezbollah
Sources
https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080016/israel-history-zionism-war-1948
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hezbollah
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-lebanon-hezbollah-war-ground-operations-as-hamas-war-continues/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/27/hezbollah-iran-israel-hamas-gaza/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/1/israels-war-on-lebanon-triggers-unprecedent-displacement
https://www.dw.com/en/israel-hezbollah-conflict-deepens-lebanons-economic-crisis/a-70341661
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/lebanon/overview
