After Dealing it Heavy Military Blows, Israel Eyes Applying Economic, Popular Pressure on Hezbollah

 This picture shows the damage at the site of overnight Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on November 9, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
This picture shows the damage at the site of overnight Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on November 9, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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After Dealing it Heavy Military Blows, Israel Eyes Applying Economic, Popular Pressure on Hezbollah

 This picture shows the damage at the site of overnight Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on November 9, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
This picture shows the damage at the site of overnight Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on November 9, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

The first phase of Israel’s complete escalation against Hezbollah in Lebanon focused on targeting the Iran-backed party’s military positions and central command.

After assassinating its top leadership and allegedly destroying over 80 percent of its rocket arsenal, Israel is now shifting to applying pressure popular and economic pressure on Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s state National News Agency (NNA) had said that Israel has completely destroyed 37 villages and 40,000 houses in the South in its effort to create a three-kilometer-deep buffer zone and keep Hezbollah away from the border to allow the safe return of residents of northern Israel back to their homes.

The destruction has also reached historic sites of the South and eastern city of Baalbek. United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert tweeted on November 1: “Recent evacuation orders for the cities of Baalbek and Tyre forced tens of thousands of Lebanese to flee en masse.Worsening an already catastrophic mass displacement situation.”

“Ancient Phoenician cities steeped in history are in deep peril of being left in ruins. Lebanon’s cultural heritage must not become yet another casualty in this devastating conflict,” she warned.

NNA reported on Saturday that Israeli jets destroyed two of the most important heritage homes in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, weeks after they destroyed the city’s historic market. They also struck ancient Roman ruins in Tyre.

Since the beginning of its escalation, Israel has also laid waste to vast areas of Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold. Conflicting reports have emerged over the exact number of residential buildings that have been destroyed, but they are estimated in the thousands.

Dahiyeh has become a main arena for Israeli attacks, most notably the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasralla in late September and its targeting of rocket depots.

Israel carried out intense raids on Dahiyeh overnight on Friday, striking the areas of Burj al-Barajneh, Haret Hrek, and al-Hadath.

Head of the Middle East Center for Strategic Studies retired Brigadier General Dr. Hisham Jaber noted that after Israel’s failure to combat Hezbollah on the ground, it is now focusing on destruction and displacement, especially in areas where Hezbollah enjoys popular support, to prevent or delay the return of residents back to their homes.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that similar to the 2006 war, Israel has again failed at its ground invasion of Lebanon. Such a step will be very costly for it, so it is making do with incursions at five border points, where it has adopted its policy of destruction at a low cost and mainly focusing on areas where Hezbollah enjoys popular support.

Retired General Khaled Hamade said Israel has not completed its military goals in Lebanon. It is forging ahead in achieving its declared goal of destroying the party on all levels.

On the military level, it has destroyed the party’s command and control and assassinated top commanders. It also eliminated the majority of its arms and ammunition depots and a large part of its infrastructure in frontline border villages, he remarked.

Israel’s attacks on cities deep in Lebanon are part of its economic war on Hezbollah, whether it destroys homes, businesses and the party’s Qard al-Hassan banks, specifically in cities that are viewed as popular hubs of the party, such as Tyre, Nabatiyeh, Bint Jbeil and Baalbek.

Moreover, Hamade predicted that Israel will expand its attacks against Hezbollah to include its strongholds and areas of popular support in Syria.



Lebanon's Public Schools Reopen amid War and Displacement

Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)
Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)
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Lebanon's Public Schools Reopen amid War and Displacement

Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)
Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)

In the quiet seaside town of Amchit, 45 minutes north of Beirut, public schools are finally in session again, alongside tens of thousands of internally displaced people who have made some of them a makeshift shelter.

As Israeli strikes on Lebanon escalated in September, hundreds of schools in Lebanon were either destroyed or closed due to damage or security concerns, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Of around 1,250 public schools in Lebanon, 505 schools have also been turned into temporary shelters for some of the 840,000 people internally displaced by the conflict, according to the Lebanese education ministry.

Last month, the ministry started a phased reopening, allowing 175,000 students - 38,000 of whom are displaced - to return to a learning environment that is still far from normal, Reuters reported.

At Amchit Secondary Public School, which now has 300 enrolled students and expects more as displaced families keep arriving, the once-familiar spaces have transformed to accommodate new realities.

Two-and-a-half months ago, the school was chosen as a shelter, school director Antoine Abdallah Zakhia said.

Today, laundry hangs from classroom windows, cars fill the playground that was once a bustling area, and hallways that used to echo with laughter now serve as resting areas for families seeking refuge.

Fadia Yahfoufi, a displaced woman living temporarily at the school, expressed gratitude mixed with longing.

"Of course, we wish to go back to our homes. No one feels comfortable except at home," she said.

Zeina Shukr, another displaced mother, voiced her concerns for her children's education.

"This year has been unfair. Some children are studying while others aren't. Either everyone studies, or the school year should be postponed," she said.

- EDUCATION WON'T STOP

OCHA said the phased plan to resume classes will enrol 175,000 students, including 38,000 displaced children, across 350 public schools not used as shelters.

"The educational process is one of the aspects of resistance to the aggression Lebanon is facing," Education Minister Abbas Halabi told Reuters

Halabi said the decision to resume the academic year was difficult as many displaced students and teachers were not psychologically prepared to return to school.

In an adjacent building at Amchit Secondary Public School, teachers and students are adjusting to a compressed three-day week, with seven class periods each day to maximize learning time.

Nour Kozhaya, a 16-year-old Amchit resident, remains optimistic. "Lebanon is at war, but education won't stop. We will continue to pursue our dreams," she said.

Teachers are adapting to the challenging conditions.

"Everyone is mentally exhausted ... after all this war is on all of us," Patrick Sakr, a 38-year-old physics teacher, said.

For Ahmad Ali Hajj Hassan, a displaced 17-year-old from the Bekaa region, the three-day school week presents a challenge, but not a deterrent.

"These are the conditions. We can study despite them," he said.