2024-10-01 05:05:24
Beirut: Ultimately, what the experts were fearing happened happened. Israel has launched a ground offensive in Lebanon after two weeks of intense bombing. On the night of Monday-Tuesday, Israeli soldiers crossed the border with tanks and entered Lebanon and are carrying out operations against Hezbollah. The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has been going on for the last one year has become fierce in the last two weeks. Israel has killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several top commanders of the group. The Israeli army has described the ground attack as a limited operation but it is not clear how long it is going to stay in Lebanon.
Israel has fought two wars in Lebanon
However, it is quite clear that Israel is ready to strike a decisive blow against Hezbollah, which has posed a major threat to it for decades. In the last one year, Hezbollah has fired hundreds of missiles, drones and rockets at Israel, to which Israel has responded. Now Israel has decided to fight the war by fielding its army, but before this it has fought war in Lebanon twice.
Israel’s previous attacks on Lebanon were inconclusive. Because of this, Israel had to lose a large number of its soldiers’ lives. Besides, his reputation at the international level was also damaged. The story of enmity between Israel and Hezbollah is decades old. Hezbollah was founded in 1982 after Israel’s first attack on Lebanon.
There was competition with Hezbollah in the first war.
Israel invaded Lebanon against the Palestinian extremist organization PLO, but Israeli troops soon found themselves fighting Hezbollah. The Shia extremist group, formed with the support of Iran, has declared the destruction of Israel as its goal. Israeli troops occupied parts of southern Lebanon until 2000, where they faced attacks primarily from Hezbollah.
Six years later, Israeli forces again entered Lebanon when Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. But this war counts as Israel’s failure. Hundreds of Hezbollah fighters were killed in this war and more than 100 Israeli soldiers also lost their lives. Dozens of Israelis and more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians were killed in the war.
The most important thing about the 2006 Lebanon war was that Hezbollah remained intact even after the ground campaign. Since then, Hezbollah has been preparing for war against Israel. Iran has helped him through weapons and funding. According to estimates, Hezbollah has 100,000 fighters. However, experts put its number at 40-50 thousand. The group has a huge stockpile of 200,000 missiles, drones and rockets. Its missiles can reach almost all of Israel.