An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army patrol killed five people, including three paramedics, in the southern town of Majdal Zoun on Tuesday. The patrol was accompanying Civil Defense medical teams and bulldozers during a rescue operation at the site of a previous Israeli strike. Some responders were trapped under rubble by the second strike. This incident contributes to a death toll of 2,534 and 7,863 wounded since the Israel-Hezbollah war broke out less than 2 months ago, displacing more than 1 million people and causing destruction worth billions of dollars.
Israeli forces detonated two kilometers (1.25 miles) of tunnels in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, describing them as 80 feet underground and built with Iranian guidance and funding. The military stated the network included two large tunnels, one 800 meters long and the other 1.2 kilometers long, equipped with sleeping rooms, toilets, kitchen facilities, and launchers aimed at Israel. An Israeli military official said large rooms within the network could gather over 100 Hezbollah fighters and ran underneath a mosque, school, and soccer field in a town roughly 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Israeli border. The detonation in Qantara registered as a "seismic event."
The Cost of Capital's Security
Israeli airstrikes also hit the villages of Chakra, Tebnine, and Kafra in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, with a drone strike hitting a motorcycle in Mansouri. The Israeli military asked residents of 16 southern villages to evacuate, stating Hezbollah uses these communities to launch attacks. Several explosive drones detonated near Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, causing no injuries, and interceptors were fired at another drone. An Israeli military contractor, a civilian employee of an engineering company working with the military on projects in southern Lebanon, was killed on Tuesday. His family was notified, but details of his death were not offered.
Defense Minister Israel Katz stated the army had been instructed to destroy any Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon "just like in Gaza." Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu declared, "we are not done yet" after destroying the tunnels, adding, "I gave instructions a few weeks ago for a special project to eliminate the drone threats. It will take time — but we will blow that up too." Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar asserted Israel had "no territorial ambitions" in Lebanon, but maintained that the Israeli military-controlled "buffer zone" stretching 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Lebanon was necessary to protect residents in Israel’s north. This "buffer zone" serves to secure the accumulated wealth and property of those residing within the state's protected borders.
State Enforcement and Justification
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strike on the army patrol, stating it was part of a pattern of Israeli attacks on rescue and emergency workers, which he called a violation of international law. Israeli ambassador Danny Danon countered that Lebanon would not have sovereignty "as long as Hezbollah controls the territory" and continued to fire on Israeli civilians. Danon suggested that international support for Lebanon should depend on "results on the ground," such as seized Hezbollah weapons and destroyed tunnels, rather than "empty statements." Saar further claimed that "Hezbollah has transformed the entire front line of southern Lebanon into a network of terrorist infrastructure," which he said the Lebanese government had not properly addressed. He also stated that the Lebanese government must take practical steps to restore its sovereignty against "de facto Iranian control." The Western-backed Lebanese army has largely stood on the sidelines during the recent rounds of fighting, though dozens of its soldiers have been killed.
Failed Diplomacy, Ongoing Destruction
A shaky temporary ceasefire is currently in effect in Lebanon, yet both sides accuse each other of violating the agreement. This ongoing cycle of accusation and counter-accusation highlights the limitations of diplomatic instruments in halting the projection of military power. Saar mentioned Israel’s first direct negotiations with Lebanon in decades as a potential "opening to a different, better future," but immediately conditioned this on the Lebanese government taking "practical steps" to assert its sovereignty. Such proposals for reform and dialogue within the existing power structures consistently fail to address the fundamental drivers of conflict, which continue to exact a heavy toll on the working people and dispossessed of the region.