What is the 42-year-old battle between Hezbollah and Israel about?
Israel and Hezbollah have been in conflict for forty years. In direct response to Palestine Liberation Organisation attacks from the south, Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982.
At least 492 people were killed in Lebanon on Monday by Israeli bombings, 35 of them children. Since the recent wave of violence that started with Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, this episode has been the deadliest. At this point, the war between Hezbollah and Israel has escalated, drawing in Hezbollah and reaching its worst point in almost a year, uprooting hundreds of families from Lebanon. The involvement of Hezbollah and Israel has intensified the conflict significantly.
Israel and Hezbollah have been at odds for forty years. In response to strikes by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) from the south, Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982, marking the beginning of it. Hezbollah and other resistance forces were born out of the extended Israeli occupation and the Sabra and Shatila massacre, which claimed the lives of 2,000–3,500 Palestinian refugees and civilians in Lebanon.
How did Hezbollah come into existence?
Hezbollah gained rapid traction by recruiting disgruntled youngsters from the Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut, where it was first established by Shia Muslim leaders with Iranian assistance.
Hezbollah was thought to have been involved in multiple attacks on foreign forces in Lebanon between 1983 and 1986. One of the biggest events happened in October 1983 when over 300 peacekeepers were killed in bombs at the French and American military camps in Beirut. Although the Islamic Jihad organisation claimed responsibility for this incident, many thought Hezbollah was responsible.
The Israeli military withdrew from most of southern Lebanon in 1985 due to Hezbollah’s growing power, but they continued to maintain a “security zone” along the border, which was manned by the South Lebanon Army (SLA), a proxy organisation with a predominance of Christians.
Following the end of Lebanon’s civil war in 1992, Hezbollah became a recognised political organisation and was elected with eight seats in the country’s 128-member parliament. The group persisted in provoking Israeli soldiers. 118 civilians in Lebanon lost their lives as a result of “Operation Accountability,” Israel’s 1993 response to Hezbollah’s attacks. In 1996, the violence returned as part of “Operation Grapes of Wrath.”
In May 2000, Israel unilaterally withdrew from southern Lebanon, which was interpreted as a win for Hezbollah. This strengthened Hezbollah’s position as a political and military power. Hezbollah’s seizure of two Israeli soldiers in 2006 sparked the 34-day July War, which killed 1,200 Lebanese and 158 Israelis.
By 2009, Hezbollah had established itself as Lebanon’s dominant military and political institution. Beginning in 2012, the group intervened in Syria’s civil war, assisting the Assad administration, which strengthened its ties with Iran while losing backing from Arab countries.
In October 2023, during the Gaza conflict, Hezbollah conducted rocket attacks on Israel in response to a significant Hamas attack. This escalation triggered additional retaliation strikes by Israel.
The ongoing battle between Israel and Hezbollah is putting thousands of lives in peril and shows no signs of ending.
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