This is not the first time that events in Palestine have affected Lebanon, and this is important to understand what is happening before our eyes. Israel invaded southern Lebanon in 1978, then again in 1982, reaching Beirut, and then again in 2006. All three events have always been linked to the Palestinian question and Israel’s colonial will. In 2006, as today, the start of Israeli bombings on Beirut has further diverted attention from Gaza.
The Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon in 1978
In 1948, Israel carried out ethnic cleansing on Palestinian territory, expelling 750,000 Palestinians. Some of these refugees, about 100,000, settled in Lebanon, which was a French colony until 1943.
In 1967, Israel illegally occupied Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights, with the opposition of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), taking refuge first in Jordan and, from 1970, in Lebanon, where it already lived a significant number of Palestinian refugees. From there, Palestinian political movements and armed groups began to operate, with Yasser Arafat at their head.
In 1978, in the midst of the Lebanese Civil War, 25,000 Israeli soldiers invaded and occupied all Lebanese territory south of the Litani River, with the intention of expelling Palestinian militias and controlling part of the neighboring country. Hundreds of Lebanese died under the bombs and Palestinians fled to the north. The United Nations strongly condemned this action through Resolution 425, which demanded the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli army and sent multinational troops, UNIFIL, to the area, which remains there to this day, commanded by Spain since 2022, with a contingent of 650 blue helmets.
The scenario of war, of headlong flight, favors the policy of fait accompli that Tel Aviv practices.
The Israeli invasion of 1982
In 1982, the Israeli army reached the capital and besieged Beirut for two months, with the alliance of the Christian Phalangist militias, led by Basher Gemayel, and inspired by the Spanish Phalange of Primo de Rivera. Thousands of Lebanese died under the bombs and shells, and thousands more had to flee. In this context of occupation and war, Hezbollah was born. It was founded by the union of several Shiite Islamic groups that sought to give more political weight to their community. They benefited from the advice and approval of Iran, where the triumph of the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979 had expelled the Shah, an ally of the United States.
In Beirut, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his men held firm in the capital, under bombardment and mortar attacks that killed thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese. The international community stepped in, sending a multinational force of American, French and Italian troops who, in August 1982, were tasked with evacuating more than 14,000 Palestinians, militiamen and their families, including Yasser Arafat.
A few days later, the Israeli army occupied western Beirut, surrounded the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila and opened the way for Christian militias who, under the observation of Israeli troops, slaughtered and shot women, men and children for three days. Between 2,000 and 3,500 Palestinians died.
After this massacre, the Israeli army left Beirut and withdrew in 1985 to the south, where it operated until 2000. It maintained sporadic clashes with Hezbollah and launched attacks that killed many Lebanese civilians, including children. Its withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, after years of occupation, helped increase Hezbollah’s popularity within Lebanon.
In 2006, as today, attention shifted from Gaza to Lebanon.
Hezbollah
Hezbollah began participating in elections in the 1990s, at the end of the Lebanese civil war, under the name Party of God. The alliance of groups it leads once enjoyed a parliamentary majority – it lost it in the 2022 elections – and has MPs in parliament and two ministers in Lebanon’s coalition government.
In addition to the party’s civilian staff, it has health, education and social welfare committees, in which nurses, doctors, teachers, administrators, economists and other employees work. There are people who are not members of Hezbollah but who receive help from its committees, in the neighborhoods hardest hit by the economic crisis that Lebanon is experiencing. When we are told that Israel attacked a “Hezbollah stronghold,” this does not mean that it is a military zone. In fact, the southern neighborhoods of Beirut, as well as the cities of southern Lebanon, are areas populated by civilians.
As for its armed wing, Hezbollah has tens of thousands of men, rockets and projectiles capable of reaching and damaging Israeli territory, where it has killed soldiers and civilians. The military superiority of the Israeli army is undeniable, both in soldiers and weapons and in the number of attacks and victims, but this has not allowed it to extend its influence in Lebanon.
During these months of massacres in Gaza, Israel invaded areas of the Gaza Strip and annexed more land in the West Bank.
The Israeli invasion of 2006
In 2006, shortly after Hamas won the elections, Israel launched several attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing civilians, including children. Images of 10-year-old Huda Ghalia crying next to the bodies of her parents and five siblings on a beach were seen around the world. Shortly after, Hamas kidnapped a soldier and the Israeli army launched Operation Summer Rain against the Gaza Strip, killing more than four hundred people, most of them civilians.
In response to these attacks, Hezbollah stepped in: it launched several rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel, killing three Israeli soldiers and kidnapping two others. Israel considered this enough to invade Lebanese territory again and unleash a war all the way to Beirut, where it implemented what is known as the Dahiya doctrine – named after the suburbs of the capital – which consists of massively and disproportionately attacking urban areas and civilian infrastructure to cause great damage. Israeli General Gadi Eisenkot later said that what happened in Dahiya in 2006 “will happen to any city from which shots are fired at Israel (…). “We will apply disproportionate power and cause immense damage and destruction.”
In a matter of days, Israeli air forces and tanks leveled entire neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital, destroyed important civilian infrastructure, including Beirut airport, and imposed an air and naval blockade. In a month, they killed more than 1,100 Lebanese civilians. Shortly thereafter, a ceasefire was signed and Israel withdrew from the country again.
The framework of peace and international law would make it difficult for Israel to maintain its illegal occupation.
Current blind attacks
In 2006, hundreds of journalists in the Lebanese capital saw images similar to those that have occurred in recent hours: the flight of thousands of people from the south to the north of the country, hundreds of bodies, thousands of wounded, buildings completely destroyed. Then as now, Gaza remained in the background of most media outlets and in the political statements of Western governments.
Following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and some 250 kidnapped, Hezbollah and Israel engaged in clashes on the border, with a significantly higher number of Israeli attacks and Lebanese deaths, including civilians, such as Issam Abdallah, a journalist at Reuters.
Today, as a year of continued massacres nears its end, with more than 41,000 dead in Gaza, Israel is once again bombing Lebanon, spreading terror with indiscriminate attacks and killing at least 600 civilians. The key to de-escalation in the region lies in a ceasefire in Gaza, peace agreements that envision an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine, and respect for international law. But the Israeli government is banking on the framework of military force, because that is where it wins. This has happened over decades.
In the context of a regional escalation, the Palestinian question is diluted, hidden, postponed.
In the 1948 war, Israel annexed 24% of the territory that had not been granted to it by the United Nations Partition Plan. In the 1967 war, it illegally occupied the remaining 22% of Palestine, as well as the Egyptian Sinai and the Syrian Golan Heights. During the Lebanon War, it occupied Lebanese territory for years. Currently, it has no desire to give up the Palestinian areas that it illegally occupies, nor the Golan Heights. In fact, during these months of massacres in Gaza, it has invaded areas of the Gaza Strip and annexed more land in the West Bank.
Several United Nations resolutions – the first dating back to 1967 – have demanded Israeli withdrawal from these territories. Since 2021, the International Criminal Court has been investigating Israeli crimes in Palestine, including the occupation itself, “the transfer of population from the occupying State to the occupied territory.” Last July, the International Court of Justice issued an opinion reiterating the illegality of the occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Furthermore, just a few days ago, the United Nations General Assembly approved, by a large majority, a resolution demanding that Israel end its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories within twelve months.
The framework of peace and international law would make it difficult for Israel to maintain these territories. The scenario of war, of headlong flight, favors the policy of fait accompli that Tel Aviv practices, facilitating its impunity, as demonstrated by its continued crimes in Gaza. In the context of a regional escalation, the Palestinian question is diluted, hidden, postponed. Israel chooses the path of arms because it can evade its obligations and obtain what international law denies it.
