Category: Lebanon

Understanding Nasrallah’s speech: How will Hezbollah avenge Shukr?

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah spoke for the second time in seven days on August 6, commemorating one week since the assassination of the group’s military commander Fuad Shukr by Israel on July 30. Uncharacteristically calm, Nasrallah devoted much of his speech to covering the Lebanese group’s weaknesses exposed by the assassination and promising to avenge

An increasingly thin blue line between Israel and Lebanon

Geopolitical observers are once again confronted with a precarious situation in the post-October 7, 2023, Middle East. The recent escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah is merely the latest development in a long-simmering conflict that has been allowed to fester for nearly two decades. Hezbollah and Israel first clashed during the South Lebanon conflict

Hezbollah escalates in the shadow of US-Israel tensions over Rafah

Hezbollah intensified its attacks against Israel since early May—shifting from pulling its punches on causing Israeli casualties to noticeably seeking to draw blood. Of the twenty-four Israelis slain in attacks from Lebanon since October 8, 2023, Hezbollah deliberately killed four—three soldiers and one civilian—during May’s second week. Nevertheless, Hezbollah is still calibrating its attacks to

A steady escalation along the Lebanon-Israel border—and no end in sight

Clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border have steadily escalated lately, even as international diplomats scramble to find a solution to return calm to the region. In recent days, Israel has attacked deeper into Lebanon with a series of airstrikes that have killed Hezbollah fighters, some of them senior officers, and several Lebanese civilians. On February 19,

Lebanon is using Hezbollah to blackmail Israel on border talks 

War once again looms between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah. After the last conflict between the two adversaries, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted Resolution 1701, which installed figurative guardrails to prevent renewed war. It demanded that Lebanon—which promised to send fifteen thousand of its soldiers to its frontier with Israel—control its territory and disarm