Israel’s remote detonation of thousands of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies has begun a series of escalations leading to the deadliest day of Israeli airstrikes against Lebanon in nearly twenty years.
But while many Western politicians, analysts and media outlets are focused on a new attack that seems lifted from the pages of a spy thriller – expressed surprise in the success of Israeli intelligence in planting explosive devices among members of the militia – they were largely ignored by the sheer terror of thousands of Lebanese civilians experienced during the explosion that shook the crowded neighborhood over two days last week. Lebanon is a country that has suffered decades of war and trauma, incl the ongoing economic collapse and the 2020 Beirut port explosion.
The fence is trapped booby and handheld radio, which apparently has rigged with explosives before being sent to Lebanon, killed in at least 37 people and wounded more than 3,000. The blasts continued with a dramatic escalation on Thursday, when Israeli forces did most of the heavy lifting powerful air strikes in southern Lebanon in almost a year. The next day, an Israeli airstrike hit two buildings south of Beirut, killing them at least 45 – including three children – and dozens of injuries. The attack killed two senior Hezbollah commanders and 12 other militia members who were seen meeting under one of the buildings.
On Saturday, Hezbollah responded by firing dozens of rockets into northern Israel, and Israel did so almost 300 air strikes in southern Lebanon said it was targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers. The group was on fire more than 100 rockets into Israel early Sundayattacking Israeli territory deeper than since October. And on Monday, Israel stepped up again with airstrikes that killed more than 350 and injured more than 1,200, according to Lebanese officials, the heaviest toll inflicted by Israeli forces there since 2006.
Each attack and counterattack increases the risk that Israel’s war in Gaza could turn into a wider conflict that engulfs Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East. A full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah would reduce the conflict by the summer of 2006. It could lead to regional hostilities that pit Israel and the United States on one side against Iran and its network of allied militias in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. apart.
Since Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, President Biden and his aides have particularly emphasized that their goal is to prevent Israel’s invasion of Gaza from becoming a regional conflagration. Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones into northern Israel on October 8 in what the group’s leaders described as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians intended to divert Israeli resources from Gaza.
But Biden has repeatedly failed to follow the most likely path to prevent a regional war: to force an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, mainly by using US influence to withhold billions of dollars. shipment of weapons to Israel. All of Iran’s allies, especially Hezbollahhave indicated that they will end attacks on Israel once the war in Gaza ends.
Over the past 11 months, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged fire almost daily across the Israel-Lebanon border, but until last week’s Israeli attack, Hezbollah had avoided the kind of large-scale response that would lead to an all-out war. Israeli retaliatory airstrikes, artillery fire and target killing, meanwhile, killed hundreds of the group’s fighters. More than 100,000 civilians have been forced from their homes on both sides of the border.
Exploding fences and Israeli hand-held radios add to the conflict with special attacks and how reckless they can be war crimes. As Human Rights Watch and other groups note, international humanitarian law prohibit using it booby traps, especially with objects commonly used by civilians.
The attack set off thousands of bombs across a state the size of Connecticut — in grocery stores, hospitals, sidewalk cafes and barbershops and at funerals. Children, medical workers and innocent people were killed and maimed. At statement after the first wave of explosions, Hizbullah noted that it had issued an alarm “to employees of various units and institutions,” indicating that the device was distributed not only to fighters but also to civilian workers. The group is not only the most dominant military force in Lebanon but also the most powerful political party, and runs an extensive network of social services including schools, hospitals, supermarkets and credit unions.
During those two days, I made phone calls to check on family and friends in Beirut, southern Lebanon and Dahiyeh, a Shiite-dominated suburb of Beirut. During many of those calls, I could hear an ambulance siren wailing in the background. Hospitals were overwhelmed by the influx of thousands of trauma victims, many with eye and body injuries. One is an ophthalmologist to the BBC that in 25 years of practice, he has “never removed as many eyes” as he was forced to in one day last week.
Those who were not injured were left in shock and extreme paranoia about the most basic aspects of their daily lives. One of my relatives who lives in Dahiyeh has disconnected the solar-powered lithium batteries that provide electricity to the apartment for fear that they might explode. He and his family sat in the dark. “What can we do?” asked my brother. “We don’t know what to believe anymore.”
The road to de-escalation and calm in the region must begin with a cease-fire in Gaza. As long as the Biden administration refuses to acknowledge and act on this reality, Lebanon and the Middle East will be overwhelmed by bloodshed, fear and chaos.
Mohamad Bazzi is the director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies and a professor of journalism at New York University.
