Israel is currently embroiled in a two-front war. As Israeli jets pound Iran, Israel hammers Hezbollah in Lebanon. The war north of Israel’s border has been overshadowed by the joint US-Israeli military campaign in Iran, but Israel’s operations in Lebanon are equally vital for its long-term peace and security.

Hezbollah, Iran’s chief regional proxy, launched hostilities on March 2 in reaction to Israel’s assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran. Since then, Israel has called up roughly 100,000 reservists and dispatched three divisions to the Lebanese front, while Hezbollah has mobilized anywhere from 25,000 to 50,000 fighters.

This new round of fighting, the third Israel-Hezbollah war since 2006, broke out nearly one-and-a-half years after Israel and Hezbollah signed a US and French-brokered ceasefire that ended the 2024 war.

It erupted after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Hezbollah, in solidarity with Hamas, initiated a months-long war of attrition with Israel on October 8. At the end of September in the following year, Israel upped the ante by targeting Hezbollah’s leadership and by invading southern Lebanon.

During the next two months, Israel so degraded Hezbollah’s military capabilities that Hezbollah agreed to a truce in November. Under its terms, Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon, but established five hilltop outposts there in a reflection of its assumption that Hezbollah remained an implacable enemy and had no intention of coming to terms with Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.

Battered but undefeated, Hezbollah regrouped and rearmed. A Reuters report dated March 21 says that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards rebuilt Hezbollah after its mauling by Israel.

With Hezbollah constantly breaking the truce, Israel struck Hezbollah’s bases throughout Lebanon on almost a daily basis, killing some 400 Hezbollah commanders and foot soldiers. Exercising unusual restraint, Hezbollah refrained from responding to Israel’s attacks.

In the meantime, the Lebanese government, under pressure from the United States and France, announced a plan to disarm Hezbollah. Israel concluded that the disarmament process was too slow and incomplete.

With the outbreak of the Iran war on February 28, Hezbollah threw caution to the wind and reignited the war in Lebanon.

This time, Israel is determined to finish off Hezbollah, but it should be noted that Israel has been trying to achieve this objective since Hezbollah’s formation in 1982 as an Iranian regional surrogate. Mindful of Hezbollah’s resiliency, Israeli government officials have told the media that this war could be a lengthy one.

Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, concurs with this assessment. “We have prepared ourselves for a long confrontation, and God willing, they (Israelis) will be surprised on the battlefield,” he said in a televised speech. “This is an existential battle … we will not allow the enemy to achieve its goal of eliminating our existence.”

He also said that hostilities can........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)