So is Israel expanding their war and invading Lebanon now? Is this not the exact imperialist land grabbing the UN is supposedly against in this century?
After the 10/7 Hamas attack, one of the biggest fears that Israel had was that Hezbollah would join and attack Israel from Lebanon. Hezbollah is one of the most serious existential threats to Israel, so it became a priority to prevent them from joining the war with Hamas.
That meant stepped up rocket and drone attacks that was intended to signal strength and serve as a warning to Hezbollah. Of course Hezbollah did the exact same thing with rocket and artillery strikes against Israeli targets, also intending to signal strength. These cross border attacks basically started up immediately after 10/7 by both sides.
The attacks have escalated slightly over time, but have not escalated into full out war. Neither side really wants to go to war right now. Israel is focused with its war in Gaza and wants to keep Hezbollah from joining. Meanwhile it’s the perfect opportunity for Hezbollah to attack while Israel’s attention is split, however that has to be balanced by the fact the vast majority of Lebanese people oppose going to war because it would devastate their country that’s already in the midst of a many-years long economic, political and social crisis. So Hezbollah is effectively prevented from joining the war with Israel by internal Lebanese issues.
Most likely the border attacks will continue as they are without escalating into an all out war that neither side is really prepared for. Unfortunately the immediate result is that entire communities on both sides of the border have become internally displaced. The article mentions ~100,000 Lebanese have fled their homes in the border region. The numbers I’ve seen for Israel are also >100,000 people evacuated from their communities near the border.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Nancy Faraj was eating lunch with her family at her home in the village of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon when Israel bombed the house next door, killing two of her neighbours.
Within hours she and her family had grabbed a handful of possessions and headed north-west for the city of Tyre, 50 miles (80km) south of Beirut, where they are now living in a school with several hundred others.
Local authorities in Tyre, a pretty seaside city with ancient ruins, are registering between 200 and 300 newly displaced people each day.
In the small town of Naqoura, 1.5 miles from the boundary with Israel, a pile of tangled rubble is all that remains of a house hit in an Israeli strike last week.
The reality, however, is that about 10,000 “trajectories” have been tracked across the blue line separating the two countries – munitions both large and small, fired by both sides in exchanges that have become constant, according to observers.
Those who could afford to rent are running out of money and we’ve seen people who were displaced to Beirut now coming back to Tyre because it is easier to get help here,” he said.
The original article contains 1,076 words, the summary contains 197 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
