PARIS: After fresh strikes on Monday following nearly a year of cross-border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, here are the major eruptions of violence since their 2006 war.
2007-2013: rocket fire and dispute
In early August 2010, a move by Israeli troops to uproot trees in a disputed border area at Adaysseh sparked a deadly battle in which two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist were killed along with a senior Israeli officer. On Aug 7, 2013 four Israeli soldiers on patrol were wounded in a blast claimed by Hezbollah 400 metres inside Lebanese territory.
2014-2015: Israeli strikes
On October 7, Israel struck two Hezbollah positions in response to a bomb attack that wounded two of Israeli soldiers in the Shebaa hills on the ceasefire line between the two countries.
On Jan 28, 2015, two Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah ambush in the Shebaa hills in retaliation for a raid blamed on Israel 10 days earlier on the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan Heights. That killed at least six members of Hezbollah and an Iranian general. In response to the ambush, Israeli tanks and artillery bombarded several villages in southern Lebanon.
2019: drones and missiles strikes
On Aug 25, 2019 two explosive-laden drones hit southern Beirut suburbs, causing damage according to Hezbollah, which blamed the attack on Israel. The day before, an Israeli air strike in Syria killed two Hezbollah members. On Sept 1, the Israeli army and Hezbollah traded missile fire along the border.
2021: uptick in clashes
In early August 2021, Israel responded to rocket fire from Lebanon with artillery fire and air strikes on southern Lebanon.
2023-2024: Oct 7 aftermath
Hezbollah has traded almost daily cross-border fire with Israel since Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023 Raid on southern Israel which triggered the conflict in the Gaza Strip. In southern Lebanon, a Reuters video journalist was killed on Oct 13, and six other journalists from AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera were wounded.
On January 2, 2024 Hamas deputy leader Saleh al Aruri was killed in Beirut’s southern suburbs in a strike blamed on Israel.
July, August 2024: Hezbollah, Fatah chiefs killed
On July 27, a rocket strike killed 12 children aged 10-16 in the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel blamed the strike on Hezbollah, which denied the claim.
The Israeli army responds by striking Beirut’s southern suburbs on July 30, killing Hezbollah’s top commander in the south, Fuad Shukr. In an Aug 21 strike, the Israeli military killed Khalil Maqdah, described by the Palestinian Fatah movement as “one of the leaders” of its armed wing in Lebanon.
Sept 2024: explosions, deadliest day
On September 17 and 18, hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah for communication exploded in an operation the Lebanese group blamed on Israel. Israel did not comment on the stunning security breach, which killed several and wounded 2,931 more, according to Lebanese authorities.
More tit-for-tat exchanges of fire followed, and on Sept 20 an Israeli strike on the group’s southern Beirut stronghold killed Ibrahim Aqil, the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.
Days later on Sept 23, Israeli strikes pounded Lebanon’s south, killing 274 people — the worst toll by far since the conflict in Gaza erupted.
Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2024
