Since March 2 Israel has launched airstrikes and ground attacks dealing blows to Hezbollah, after the Tehran-backed group unleashed missiles from Lebanon at civilian populations in Israel. Like its patrons in Tehran, and fellow “axis of resistance” forces in Iraq, Yemen and Gaza, Hezbollah’s goals center on killing Jews and destroying Israel.
It’s the largest and best equipped of the proxy forces the Iranian rulers use to extend their reactionary influence in the region and to attack Israel from all sides, as they did during and after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom. Almost daily airstrikes by Hezbollah targeted towns in northern Israel until the terror outfit was substantially cut down as a result of Israel’s military response. Hezbollah signed a ceasefire on Nov. 27, 2024.
President Joseph Biden’s administration pushed Israel to agree to that deal. Under its terms Hezbollah was to withdraw from southern Lebanon and security was handed over to the Lebanese army, which was supposed to prevent Hezbollah from returning. In fact, the Jew-hating terror group never went away and Israel continued to conduct airstrikes against its positions.
The conflict in Lebanon accelerated with Washington’s war against Iran, exposing the scope of the vast firepower in the hands of Hezbollah, which had used the 2024 “ceasefire” to substantially rebuild its forces and armories. The conflict has also laid bare the lies of the Lebanese government, which claims that Hezbollah’s military operations has been dismantled south of the Litani River.
Between March 2-30 Hezbollah targeted communities in Israel with at least 3,000 rockets, missile and drone attacks, including a long-range missile strike toward Ashkelon and surface-to-air missiles targeting Israeli airplanes. Hezbollah says it launched the assaults in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The terror group also claims to have destroyed several Israeli Merkava tanks using anti-tank guided missiles. Eleven Israeli soldiers have been killed.
Hezbollah makes sham claims that its deadly assaults are part of the defense of Lebanon’s sovereignty. “Together as a state, army, people and resistance, we protect our country,” Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem declared April 10. But in fact Hezbollah unleashes airstrikes at Israel while hiding its forces and arms caches in hospitals, schools and other infrastructure, using civilians as human shields. The Israeli military reported it had “eliminated terrorists as they were exiting the hospital in Bint Jbeil” in southern Lebanon April 13.
Israel moves to push back Hezbollah
The Israel Defense Forces said it has dismantled almost 4,000 Hezbollah military bases over the past month where some 1,250 weapons were stored in southern Lebanon. The IDF now occupies a swathe of territory and the main high ground points there.
Israeli airstrikes hit 50 locations in Lebanon April 9, including in Beirut. The IDF says it targeted Hezbollah command centers, offices, rocket and naval units. Israel has issued evacuation orders for 15% of Lebanon, mostly in the south, and some 1.2 million people have left their homes.
Hezbollah responded to the April 9 airstrikes with rocket attacks on towns in Israel near the border.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened military action against Israel. The French and U.K. governments — the former colonial powers in the region responsible for the sectarian form of government in Lebanon — also condemned Israeli operations there.
Under U.S. pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will seek a ceasefire with the Lebanese government while the IDF continues “to strike Hezbollah with force, precision and determination.” President Donald Trump called on Israel to be “a little more low-key.”
Washington is pursuing its own national interests in the Middle East, including trying to reach an accord with the Iranian rulers that advances U.S. domination of the region. It views Israel’s efforts to defend itself against Hezbollah as an obstacle in this effort.
Hezbollah was created in Lebanon in 1982 by the bourgeois-clerical regime in Iran after it carried through a counterrevolution against the popular revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran three years earlier. Modeled on its counterrevolutionary thugs at home, Hezbollah was used by Tehran to extend its reactionary sway across the region and beyond. In 1994 Hezbollah bombed a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 85 people.
As long as Hezbollah endures it will be a direct threat to Israel’s existence and to the lives of millions of Jews.