NOT content with the bloodbath it has unleashed in Gaza, Israel is now on the rampage in Lebanon, routinely violating that country’s sovereignty and hitting civilian targets in its quest to target Hezbollah.

The week began with an unprecedented example of ‘digital terrorism’, as hundreds of pagers believed to have been rigged by Israel exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday. Though Hezbollah fighters were apparently the prime targets, many civilians also suffered casualties. Just a day later, hundreds of walkie-talkies exploded, also resulting in numerous deaths and injuries.

Then on Friday, Israel struck a residential area of Beirut; the apparent target was Ibrahim Aqil, a senior commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force. According to the Lebanese health minister, at least 70 people have been killed in these attacks, including children. Israel’s criminal actions have also strengthened fears that the war on Gaza is going to expand into a wider regional conflict. The Israeli defence minister had earlier said that the “centre of gravity” was shifting north, meaning that the Israeli war machine would now focus its guns on Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, following the pager blasts, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had said the fresh attacks were a “declaration of war”. Unless there is a miraculous and rapid de-escalation — principally in the form of a Gaza ceasefire — a wider war surely looms on the horizon.

Israel has violated Lebanese sovereignty several times over the past decades, also occupying Lebanese territory. Tel Aviv’s hatred for Hezbollah can, in fact, be traced to the liberation of south Lebanon in 2000, in which the pro-Iran group played a major role in ousting the Israeli occupiers. The present face-off is, of course, linked to the Gaza massacre, as Hezbollah started targeting Israel after the Oct 7 events, apparently in solidarity with Hamas.

If Israel continues murdering Lebanese civilians, and targeting Hezbollah’s commanders and cadres, the armed group will, in all likelihood, start striking deeper inside the Zionist state. And if the warmongers in Tel Aviv manage to ignite a full-blown war with Lebanon, it will likely pull in both the Iran-led ‘Axis of Resistance’, and Israel’s Western protectors and benefactors.

Only a complete ceasefire in Gaza, and accountability for Israeli crimes — particularly its targeting of Palestinian and Lebanese non-combatants — can stop a region-wide conflagration. Anything short of this is unlikely to stop the march towards war.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2024