Recently, Israel has begun wide scale strikes and military action within the small Middle Eastern country of Lebanon. A tenuous 10 day ceasefire has been declared today in Lebanon. As this is rapidly unfolding, the situation will continue to change in Lebanon in the coming weeks.
These attacks have been, according to Israel, attempts to eliminate the Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah, who have large membership in Lebanon. Israel’s recent attempts to ‘destroy Hezbollah’ have amounted to blowing up Hezbollah and civilian pagers and, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, strikes wounding and killing thousands of Lebanese people, including wounding over 650 children. Lebanon has claimed that they are actively putting forth effort towards eliminating Hezbollah, a force that has been instrumental in their government for many years. Israel disagrees and claims that it must take the role of eliminating Hezbollah into its own hands.
Israeli officials claim plans for a defensive buffer zone, taking over 10 percent of Lebanon for military control and “buffer” between Hezbollah and Israel. Israel’s defense minister states that he plans to displace the 600,000 residents currently in the place where the buffer zone would be located, planning to demolish Muslim villages within the zone to make way for Israeli settlers. Muslim communities are being specifically targeted by the forces, with them choosing to spare Christian and Druze villages within the zone, sparking fears of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Israeli forces. These Muslim communities have lived in these lands for 1300 years.
Alongside these plans to displace Muslims in the community, the Christian and Druze towns and civilians are being threatened by the Israeli government not to hide or harbor Muslims in their communities to protect them from their forces.
During the Iran war ceasefire, the topic of Israel’s intervention in Lebanon became crucial in discussions. With Iran and Pakistan claiming that Israel stopping activities in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire. The United States and Israel claim that it was never part of the agreement. In this time, Israel continued their bombing of Lebanon regardless. Israel has also begun use of white phosphorus in residential areas of Lebanon, stoking fears of a violation of the 1980’s “Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons,” an additional document to the Geneva Conventions.
Hezbollah has claimed that It will not abide by agreements made by the Lebanese government, worsening fears that this conflict will continue to drag on. The human cost of this conflict is immense and if peace is not made soon those costs will continue long into the future. The conflict does not bode well for the prospect of peace in the Middle East, especially with their role in the negotiations of the Iran-USA war.
