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.



Hezbollah’s ‘Statelet’ in Syria’s Qusayr Under Israeli Fire

Smoke billows from al-Qusayr in western Syria following an attack. (SANA)
Smoke billows from al-Qusayr in western Syria following an attack. (SANA)
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Hezbollah’s ‘Statelet’ in Syria’s Qusayr Under Israeli Fire

Smoke billows from al-Qusayr in western Syria following an attack. (SANA)
Smoke billows from al-Qusayr in western Syria following an attack. (SANA)

Israel has expanded its strikes against Hezbollah in Syria by targeting the al-Qusayr region in Homs.

Israel intensified its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon in September and has in the process struck legal and illegal borders between Lebanon and Syria that are used to smuggle weapons to the Iran-backed party. Now, it has expanded its operations to areas of Hezbollah influence inside Syria itself.

Qusayr is located around 20 kms from the Lebanese border. Israeli strikes have destroyed several bridges in the area, including one stretching over the Assi River that is a vital connection between Qusayr and several towns in Homs’ eastern and western countrysides.

Israel has also hit main and side roads and Syrian regime checkpoints in the area.

The Israeli army announced that the latest attacks targeted roads that connect the Syrian side of the border to Lebanon and that are used to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah.

Qusayr is strategic position for Hezbollah. The Iran-backed party joined the fight alongside the Syrian regime against opposition factions in the early years of the Syrian conflict, which began in 2011. Hezbollah confirmed its involvement in Syria in 2013.

Hezbollah waged its earliest battles in Syria against the “Free Syrian Army” in Qusayr. After two months of fighting, the party captured the region in mid-June 2013. By then, it was completely destroyed and its population fled to Lebanon.

A source from the Syrian opposition said Hezbollah has turned Qusayr and its countryside to its own “statelet”.

It is now the backbone of its military power and the party has the final say in the area even though regime forces are deployed there, it told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Qusayr is critical for Hezbollah because of its close proximity to the Lebanese border,” it added.

Several of Qusayr’s residents have since returned to their homes. But the source clarified that only regime loyalists and people whom Hezbollah “approves” of have returned.

The region has become militarized by Hezbollah. It houses training centers for the party and Shiite militias loyal to Iran whose fighters are trained by Hezbollah, continued the source.

Since Israel intensified its attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the party moved the majority of its fighters to Qusayr, where the party also stores large amounts of its weapons, it went on to say.

In 2016, Shiite Hezbollah staged a large military parade at the al-Dabaa airport in Qusayr that was seen as a message to the displaced residents, who are predominantly Sunni, that their return home will be impossible, stressed the source.

Even though the regime has deployed its forces in Qusayr, Hezbollah ultimately holds the greatest sway in the area.

Qusayr is therefore of paramount importance to Hezbollah, which will be in no way willing to cede control of.

Lebanese military expert Brig. Gen Saeed Al-Qazah told Asharq Al-Awsat that Qusayr is a “fundamental logistic position for Hezbollah.”

He explained that it is where the party builds its rockets and drones that are delivered from Iran. It is also where the party builds the launchpads for firing its Katyusha and grad rockets.

Qazah added that Qusayr is also significant for its proximity to Lebanon’s al-Hermel city and northeastern Bekaa region where Hezbollah enjoys popular support and where its arms deliveries pass through on their way to the South.

Qazah noted that Israel has not limited its strikes in Qusayr to bridges and main and side roads, but it has also hit trucks headed to Lebanon, stressing that Israel has its eyes focused deep inside Syria, not just the border.