Since Hamas’ unprecedented deadly attack on Israeli soil on October 7, violence has erupted between Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Israeli army on the Israel-Lebanon border.
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On Sunday, the Israeli army accused Lebanon’s powerful Shiite movement of seeking military escalation. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hezbollah would make the “mistake of a lifetime” by going to war against his country.
Iran, an ally of Hezbollah and Hamas, has warned of an escalation of the conflict due to the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas attack that reportedly killed more than 1,400 people. Israeli authorities.
Since October 7, violence on Lebanon’s Israel-Lebanese border has left 40 dead, most of them Hezbollah fighters, as well as four civilians, including a Portal photographer. Four people were killed on the Israeli side.
Why does Hezbollah support Hamas?
After Hamas’s attack on Israel, Hezbollah bombed Israeli positions from southern Lebanon. Israel retaliated. So far, Hezbollah has been content with limited attacks.
Analysts say Hamas and Hezbollah formed a center of “joint operations” with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Quds Force, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard force, long before the Oct. 7 attack, a Hezbollah source said AFP news agency on condition of remaining anonymous.
These groups, which make up the “Axis of Resistance,” as Israel’s enemies are unofficially known, have been coordinating their actions for years with other Palestinian and Syrian factions, as well as other Iranian-backed groups.
According to analyst Michael Young of the Carnegie Middle East Center, the Shiite Hezbollah’s support for the Sunni Hamas stems from the fact that they have the same enemy: Israel.
The Axis of Resistance has always tried to “highlight that it is not an exclusively Shiite structure,” Mr Young told AFP.
“Hamas is at the heart of the Palestinian issue, which is an essential part of the revolutionary identity of Hezbollah and Iran.”
What are Hezbollah’s military capabilities?
Hezbollah is the main political and military force in Lebanon. The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), a think tank in Tel Aviv, estimates its arsenal at 150,000 to 200,000 rockets and missiles of all types, including “hundreds of precision missiles.” In 2021, this group claimed 100,000 fighters. The INSS has half as many.
Iran finances the Shiite movement by supplying it with weapons and equipment, primarily through Syria.
According to a UN resolution, Hezbollah has not had a visible military presence on the Lebanese-Israeli border since the 2006 war with Israel. However, experts report tunnels and trenches dug by the movement in the region through which its members circulate.
For years, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has repeated that the precision weapons at his movement’s disposal can even reach Ashdod, an Israeli coastal city north of Gaza.
In mid-August, he said that “a few high-precision missiles” from his training were enough to destroy a list of targets in Israel that he listed: “civil and military airports, air bases, power plants, communications centers, and so on.” Dimona (nuclear power plant ).
Does Hezbollah want to go to war?
Hassan Nasrallah has not spoken since October 7th. But a possible escalation on the Lebanese border with the prospect of a likely Israeli ground intervention in Gaza is worrying the international community, which fears an escalation of the conflict.
Imad Salameh of the Lebanese American University (LAU) believes Hezbollah could increase its attacks, but does not want to distract from the conflict between Hamas and Israel.
For Michael Young, the Lebanese movement wants to “keep enough Israeli troops out of the Gaza Strip.” It could also have been aimed at “stoking fears of a regional conflagration that would result in pressure on the United Nations and perhaps even the United States to call for a ceasefire.”
As for the possibility of Iran pushing Hezbollah into a direct confrontation with Israel, MM Salameh and Young say they are convinced that “Iran will not sacrifice Hezbollah.”