Eastern Mediterranean Tensions (Israel-Hezbollah Conflict):

By :- Rishit Bhargava

The past week has seen a rapid escalation in the near conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. So, on September 20, 2024, the militant group launched a group of rockets into Northern Israel. Later, the commander of Hezbollah was killed in a strike in the city of Beirut, and dozens of people were also killed. On September 22, 2024, the Shiite group Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets in northern Israel, and also some landed near the City of Haifa. Then comes the biggest and deadliest day when, on Monday, 23, 2024, Israel launched many series of strikes that killed more than 490 Lebanese.

Due to this, Israel warned southern and eastern Lebanon people to leave their homes against Hezbollah.  Many of the people feared that the violence could lead to a destructive war, which would further destabilize the region and economy by fighting in Gaza. Both sides were unprepared and said that they didn't want that to happen, even as they had defiantly warned of heavier attacks.

Israel and Hezbollah have been competing with each other in war and have launched repeated strikes against each other since the Gaza war began. Still, both sides have pulled back themselves, on the verge of getting out of control, under heavy pressure from the U.S. and its allies. But in recent weeks, Israeli leaders have been warned of a possible bigger military operation to stop attacks from Lebanon and to allow hundreds and thousands of Israelis to return to homes near the border.

 On September 23, 2024, More than 1,600 Lebanese were injured in deadly strikes, and thousands of them fled southern Lebanon to escape and save them. Israel wanted to target Hezbollah weapons sites and has hit some 1,600 targets. Lebanon’s health minister said hospitals, medical centers, and ambulances had been struck in the war.  The Israeli military warned its citizens to leave areas immediately or leave the country in order to protect themselves from the deadliest attack of where Hezbollah is storing weapons and preparing for a fight. The Lebanese media said the evacuation warning was repeated in text messages, and no one is still listening or responding.

Hezbollah confronts that it had fired dozens of rockets towards Israel, which may include military bases or other weapons, and officials said a series of air-raid sirens were ringing out in northern Israel warning of rocket attacks, which may happen after giving the warning itself.

On Friday, 20 September 2024, an Israeli airstrike brought down a high-rise building in Beirut's southern suburbs, killing Ibrahim Akhil, the commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan unit, and other top unit leaders .  Israel said Akhil was the leader that led the group's campaign of rocket, drone and other fire into northern Israel and has manging it . So in that war, at  least 45 people were killed in that attack and more than 60 wounded, making it a huge and terrible loss.

That strike came after the shock of the electronic device bombings by Israelis,  in which thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah detonated on Tuesday (September 17, 2024) and Wednesday (September 18, 2024), were killed.  So, in that war, At least 37 people were killed, including two children, and around 3,000 were still wounded. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement, and it is fighting in this war. The fighting killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and an estimated range of 1,100 Lebanese people and left large swaths of the south and even parts of Beirut in ruins, making it difficult for them to recover. More than 120 Israeli soldiers were killed and hundreds wounded, leaving no scope. Hezbollah's missile fire on Israeli cities killed dozens of civilians and its workers. Israel estimates that Hezbollah now possesses about 150,000 huge rockets and missiles, which are still saved, some of which are precision-guided, putting the entire country within range and in fear. Israel has beefed up air defenses, but it's unclear whether it can defend against the intense barrages of a new war or not or whetherit may be possible for them or not.

Israel has vowed that it could turn all of southern Lebanon into a battle zone by competing, saying Hezbollah has embedded rockets, weapons, and forces along the border to be ready to fight in the war. And in the heightened rhetoric of the past months, Israeli politicians have spoken of inflicting the same damage in Lebanon that the military has wreaked in Gaza, which no one has ever seen in life.

Israeli officials say they haven't yet made an official decision to expand military operations against Hezbollah. Still, they will try to expand if necessary and needed – and haven't said publicly what those operations or tasks might be a week, thoughthe head of Israel's Northern Command was quoted in local media as advocating for a ground invasion of Lebanon, making the situation difficult for them.

Meanwhile, as fighting in Gaza has slowed, Israel has increased its forces along the Lebanese border so as to compete with other troops in order to win and succeed, including the arrival of a powerful army division and the inclusion of thousands of troops for the war.

But Israel could have a more ambitious goal and big decision this time:  on how to seize a buffer zone in south Lebanon to push back Hezbollah fighters from the border by preventing them from the ongoing war. A fight that holds territory and threatens a longer, even more destructive, and destabilizing war – recalling Israel's 1982-2000 occupation of southern Lebanon and the situation that occurred at that time and making it unsafe for them to handle such war in this chaotic situation.

Iran had a plan which it wanted to change the rules in the hostile engagement with Israel.

Israel and its top allies said that their respective militaries worked together to shoot down and kill most of the nearly 200 people and projectiles fired by Iran. In return to this, the Israeli army said that only a few air strikes were recorded in southern and central parts of the country. 

Iran launched a high-speed missile at Israel on Tuesday, making it the largest-ever attack on its regional part. The Israel defense forces have now expanded the war to Lebanon, on which they are bombing heavily, on a large scale. Lebanon is home to Iran’s key regional ally, Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into northern Israel in response to bloodshed in Gaza.