Israeli occupation forces have leveled every Shia-majority town and village along the Lebanese border, transforming the area into what one Hezbollah source described as “like a football pitch – completely flat, not a single building standing, not a house, not a mosque.” This systematic destruction occurred during a 15-month ceasefire period, which saw 3,000 air, drone, and artillery strikes against Hezbollah. The devastating campaign followed a 66-day air and land offensive by Israel in 2024 that killed Hezbollah's leadership, including Hassan Nasrallah and his cousin Hashem Safieddine, and destroyed entire units and ammunition stores.
This widespread destruction and displacement are part of an ongoing military occupation that has forced around 600,000 people from their homes in south Lebanon. The Israeli state has openly targeted these residents, describing them as the “Shia enemy population,” a designation that has reportedly driven the community closer to Hezbollah. The initial support for Hezbollah in the early 1980s was also rooted in the displacement of Shia Lebanese by the Israeli invasion, drawing them away from the Amal movement with promises of armed resistance.
Escalation and Resistance
The conflict intensified significantly in October 2023, when Nasrallah ordered a barrage of rockets, opening a support front following the 7 October 2023 attack. This decision, according to three sources, was solely Nasrallah’s, despite opposing views within Hezbollah’s Shura Council. For a year, Hezbollah and Israel exchanged cross-border strikes, with 7,000 rockets, missiles, drones, and air and artillery strikes traded across the Blue Line. The Lebanese side suffered 2,000 casualties, while 70 were reported south of the border.
In September 2024, Israel detonated thousands of booby-trapped pagers and hundreds of walkie-talkies, killing around 40 people and wounding thousands more. David Barnea, then head of Mossad, called it a “clear example of the realisation of our mission.” This attack, which Hezbollah sources deemed a failure, targeted communications infrastructure. By early September 2024, Hezbollah and Iran recognized the war could not be contained, leading Hezbollah to decide on a full escalation, which was pre-empted by Israel’s actions.
US Complicity and Diplomatic Failures
The United States has played a significant role in the regional dynamics, including a US drone strike in January 2020 that killed Qassem Soleimani, a key figure in the “unity of fronts” strategy alongside Nasrallah. More recently, the US and Israel launched a war on Iran in March 2026, which resulted in the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Hezbollah responded by firing six rockets across the border, a decision attributed to Naim Qassem and supported by Iran.
Despite a ceasefire in force since 16 April 2026, attacks have continued. The Lebanese state has attempted to decouple itself from the US-Israeli war on Iran through direct negotiations with Israel, resulting in a US-mediated framework. This framework has only allowed the Lebanese army to deploy in a single southern town as a pilot scheme. Iran has underwritten the truce, threatening shipping on the Strait of Hormuz if Israel violates the ceasefire. Hezbollah sources and Lebanese officials maintain that this pause does not signify an end to the war.
Reorganization and Ongoing Struggle
Following the devastating 2024 campaign, Hezbollah reorganized its military wing into independent units, adopting a guerrilla combat model. This new structure was tested in March 2026, with Israeli troops fanning out across Lebanese territory south of the Litani and beyond, establishing approximately 300 positions in private homes, abandoned military bases, and a Crusader castle. Hezbollah relinquished urban areas like Bint Jbeil under its new guidelines, but Israeli troops were consistently harassed, with around 20 soldiers killed in south Lebanon since 2 March.
Hezbollah has adapted its tactics, utilizing drones piloted by Lebanese gamers, which Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “central threat.” The movement also repurposed fibre-optic cable, originally intended for the Almas-1 missile program, for these FPV drones. Despite severe degradation, Hezbollah is described as effective in its pivot to a more nimble guerrilla-style force. Nawaf Moussawi, a senior Hezbollah official, asserted that the “occupation” is the problem, not the resistance, stating, “Let us suppose that Hezbollah did not exist. There would still be an organisation expressing the will of the Lebanese people to liberate their land.”