Imad K. Harb
The Israeli war on Hezbollah has just entered another deadly phase characterized by the sophisticated, but criminally minded, use of cyber warfare to detonate communication devices all around Lebanon in the hope of killing or maiming as many party fighters as possible. According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, the detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies over two days on September 17 and 18 has killed 37 people (including two children) and injured almost 3,000 others. In a speech on September 19, Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah declared the attacks an act of terrorism and a declaration of war by Israel, and vowed to continue the party’s operations in the south against Israeli forces.
Israel indeed seems to be on its way to war against Hezbollah and Lebanon after it devastated Gaza and killed more than 41,000 Palestinians there. Israeli leaders have vowed that they will not allow the situation on the border with Lebanon to continue as it has been since October 2023. Some 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from their towns because of Hezbollah attacks. (More than 100,000 Lebanese have also been displaced from their villages following Israeli attacks on their communities.) While meeting with American envoy Amos Hochstein on September 16, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is seeking “a fundamental change in the security situation” in the north. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told air force personnel on September 18 that Israeli forces are being deployed in the north for a “new phase” of the war. While it is not known whether the pager and walkie-talkie attacks were a prelude to an all-out Israeli assault on Hezbollah, Israeli warplanes struck the party’s positions on September 19 following the death of two Israeli soldiers in Hezbollah rocket attacks.
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