There is a risk that what has happened in the Gaza Strip in recent months will be repeated in Lebanon. Israel continues to say, through the mouth of its leader Benjamin Netanyahu, that the operation in the Land of the Cedars is a military operation aimed at “limiting the ability to launch rockets” against Hezbollah, which in Arabic means “Party of God”. Against the Jewish state. “This war is not against you, it is against Hezbollah,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said in an unusual video message to the Lebanese, but was met with silence by the Beirut government.
Message to the Lebanese people: pic.twitter.com/gNVNLUlvjm
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 23, 2024
Tel Aviv has been waging a parallel war on the Lebanese border for days, while its pressure on the Gaza Strip continues, where the Israeli army must launch an operation in the northern Palestinian territory to combat Hamas fighters, who Netanyahu told members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, currently number 5,000. As with Hamas, Israel has always viewed Hezbollah as the number one threat to the country, especially because of the support it receives from Iran as part of the “Axis of Resistance.”
Labeled terrorist organizations by the United States, the European Union, and many other governments, Hamas and Hezbollah are skilled at waging asymmetric warfare (i.e., unequal, undeclared conflict in which one side is forced to defend itself against an unidentified enemy). Against Israel, it was seen as its implacable enemy. Hezbollah has made the fight against the Jewish state one of its main reasons for living, and in the process has become one of the strongest supporters of the Palestinian cause: It has become an iron ally of Hamas, even though one group is Sunni and the other Shia. So why does Tel Aviv view Hamas and Hezbollah (as well as the Houthis in Yemen and the ayatollahs in Iran) as threats to Israel’s existence? Although the two organizations share the same goal of resistance to the Jewish state, their differences in terms of their reach and military capabilities are significant.
Tunnels and Hamas guerrilla warfare
Born in 1998 as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Sunni organization Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007 through a combination of armed struggle and a political and social agenda. The Palestinian group’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, operates in a network of tunnels beneath the densely populated areas of the Strip to both launch attacks on Israel and evade detection by Israeli intelligence.
Built roughly in the 1980s to allow the illegal import of various goods into Gaza, the tunnels have expanded significantly since 2007, when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip by forcibly expelling the relatively moderate Palestinian Fatah party. The tunnels, which are up to 60-80 meters deep, are now part of a network through which Hamas fighters plan and launch military operations. The tunnel network has become a major security problem for Israel: as in 2014, Tel Aviv began occupying the Strip after October 7, and more than 41,000 people, including more than 16,000 children, died in the underground channels.
What is the Palestinian group’s military strength? Hamas fighters possess and use homemade rockets, mortars, explosives, guided anti-tank missiles such as the Russian-made Kornet and North Korea’s Bolsai, and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. There are also suicide drones and small arms used by militias. It is difficult to know the true extent of the Palestinian group’s military strength: by some estimates, Hamas had about 30,000 fighters before October 7. Israel says it has killed or captured half of Hamas’ commanders and more than 14,000 fighters since the start of the war in the Strip.
Hezbollah’s advanced military capabilities
Hezbollah has much more advanced military capabilities than Hamas. The Party of God, a Lebanese Shiite organization founded in 1982, has become an influential political party in Lebanon and the region thanks to the charisma of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, who rarely appears in public but whose face is seen almost everywhere on the streets of the country, where it appears on billboards and posters. Its founding dates back to 1982, when another war between the Cedar country and Israel took place, when Tel Aviv invaded the south of the Arab nation, claiming that it was in response to attacks launched by the Palestine Liberation Organization from southern Lebanon.
What is Hezbollah, what are its relations with Iran, how many militants does it have and how does it operate in Lebanon?
Hezbollah’s strength is primarily military. In 2021, Nasrallah claimed that his group had around 100,000 fighters, but experts believe the number is actually lower, between 20,000 and 50,000. Its fighters were partly trained by forces affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The country’s support for the ayatollah’s leadership has been key to increasing the power of the group’s paramilitary wing, whose power is considered greater than Lebanon’s regular army.
Thanks to significant funding and supplies from Tehran, estimated by the US to be around $700 million each year, Hezbollah’s arsenal has grown to include advanced rockets, missiles, drones and anti-ship weapons. The Party of God demonstrated its military might to the world in the brief and inconclusive conflict between Lebanon and Israel in 2006. Tel Aviv believes Hezbollah has around 150,000 deep-strike rockets and missiles, including Iranian Fateh-110 and Zelzal-2. They are penetrating Israeli territory with high precision.
Who can win the war between Israel and Lebanon?
Unlike Hamas, Hezbollah is more aligned with Iran’s goals in the Middle East and opposes any Western or Israeli presence in the region. Many Hezbollah commanders gained useful experience in the conflict in Syria, where the organization was deployed to strengthen the Assad regime. It is therefore not surprising for Tehran that the Party of God has become an influential regional player in the region, with some of its military commanders reportedly in Iraq to train Shiite militias and in Yemen to work with the Houthi rebels.
There are many unknowns about what will happen in the coming days after the escalation of tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, which has been fueled by missiles and raids. At the moment, the Israelis do not seem willing to stop their attacks in Lebanon until Hezbollah stops firing missiles at the Jewish state, or to leave the Strip until Hamas is destroyed. As Israel continues its offensive in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, Hezbollah and Hamas will continue to try to hit Israel.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
