Israel’s escalating war with Hezbollah is traumatizing Lebanon. There is only one path to peace

Smoke rises from airstrikes on villages in southern Lebanon on Monday. (Hussein Malla/Associated Press)

Israel’s remote detonation of thousands of Hezbollah members pagers and radios It set off a series of escalations that led to Israel launching its deadliest airstrikes on Lebanon in two decades.

But while many Western politicians, analysts and media outlets are fixated on the novelty of an attack that looks like it stepped out of the pages of an espionage thriller — expressing astonishment Despite Israeli intelligence’s success in planting explosive devices among militia members, they have largely ignored the horror experienced by thousands of Lebanese civilians during two days of explosions that rocked crowded neighborhoods last week. Lebanon is a country that has been plagued by decades of war and trauma, and continuing economic collapse and the 2020 Beirut port explosion.

Apparently trap pagers and walkie-talkies rigged with explosives Killed before being sent to Lebanon at least 37 people and more than 3,000 people were injured. The explosions were the most intense air strikes In southern Lebanon, about a year in. The next day, an Israeli airstrike destroyed two buildings in southern Beirut and at least 45 — including three children — and injured dozens of others. The attack killed two senior Hezbollah commanders and 12 other militia members who were apparently huddled under one of the buildings.

On Saturday, Hezbollah responded by firing dozens of rockets into northern Israel, which followed suit. about 300 airstrikes It is said to have targeted Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon. The group opened fire More than 100 rockets were fired at Israel on Sunday morningSince October, it has invaded deeper into Israeli territory. And on Monday, Israel escalated once again with deadly airstrikes More than 350 More than 1,200 people were injured, according to Lebanese officials, the heaviest losses suffered by Israeli forces there since 2006.

Each attack and counterattack increases the risk that Israel’s war on Gaza will escalate into a broader conflict involving Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East. A full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah could overshadow their clashes in the summer of 2006. It could precipitate regional hostilities that pit Israel and the United States against Iran and its network of allied militias in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen on one side.

Since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, President Biden and his top aides have insisted that their goal is to prevent Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza from escalating into such a regional conflagration. On Oct. 8, Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones into northern Israel in what the group’s leaders described as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and an attempt to divert Israeli resources away from Gaza.

But Biden has repeatedly failed to pursue the most likely path to avert a regional war: pressing for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, particularly by using his influence to withdraw billions of dollars in U.S. aid. arms shipments To Israel. All of Iran’s allies, especially HezbollahHe stated that they will stop their attacks on Israel after the conflict in Gaza ends.

For the past 11 months, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged fire on a near-daily basis along the Israel-Lebanon border, but until last week’s Israeli strikes, Hezbollah had refrained from the kind of large-scale response that would precipitate a full-scale war. Meanwhile, Israeli retaliatory airstrikes, artillery fire and targeted assassinations have killed hundreds of the group’s fighters. More than 100,000 civilians have been forced from their homes on both sides of the border.

Israel’s exploding pagers and walkie-talkies escalated the conflict in a particularly sneaky and reckless attack that likely precipitated a firefight. war crimeAs Human Rights Watch and other groups have noted, international humanitarian law prohibits the use of Booby traps are created using objects that are frequently used by civilians.

The attack set off thousands of bombs in grocery stores, hospitals, sidewalk cafes and barber shops, and funerals across a country the size of Connecticut, killing and maiming children, health care workers, and innocent passersby. an expression After the first wave of blasts, Hezbollah said it distributed pagers to “employees of various units and institutions,” hinting that the devices were distributed not only to its fighters but also to civilian workers. The group is not only Lebanon’s dominant military force but also its most powerful political party, and operates an extensive network of social services, including schools, hospitals, supermarkets and credit unions.

Over the course of those two days, I made a series of phone calls to check in on family and friends in Beirut, southern Lebanon, and Dahiyeh, a densely populated, Shiite suburb of Beirut. During many of those calls, I could hear ambulance sirens wailing in the background. Hospitals were overwhelmed by an influx of thousands of trauma victims, many with life-changing injuries to their eyes and limbs. An ophthalmologist He told the BBC He said last week that in his 25-year career, he had “never had so many eyes forcibly removed in one day”.

Those who were not injured were left in shock and overwhelming paranoia about the most basic aspects of daily life. One of my cousins, who lives in Dahiyeh, had disconnected the solar lithium batteries that power his apartment for fear they might explode. He and his family sat in the dark. “What can we do?” my cousin asked. “We don’t know what to believe anymore.”

The path to de-escalation and calm in the region must begin with a ceasefire in Gaza. As long as the Biden administration refuses to accept and act on this reality, Lebanon and the Middle East will be plagued by more blood, fear, and chaos.

Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hakob Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies and professor of journalism at New York University.

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This story was first published on: Los Angeles Times.