What is Israel's enmity with Lebanon and Hezbollah? They took a step back 24 years ago.
There is tension and conflict on many fronts in the Middle East at this time. There are many characters in this war and each character has a different but more or less the same story of tension with Israel. Hamas has been fighting Israel in the name of the struggle for a free Palestine, while the reason for enmity with Hezbollah is also hidden around this conflict.
Iran is considered to be a supporter of both of them, although it never directly participated in the war, but Iran is believed to be behind providing arms to Hamas and Hezbollah. On the other hand, the Houthi rebels in Yemen have shown that they are also ready to take on Israel by firing rockets at Tel Aviv in Israel from about 2000 kilometers away. But Hezbollah is a bigger challenge for Israel than Hamas at this time.
First understand the Arab-Israeli conflict
To understand the enmity between Israel and Hezbollah, we have to go a little into flashback. After the Second World War, many countries including America and Britain were trying to establish a separate Jewish country Israel. But with the formation of Israel, the struggle for the independence of Palestine began. The sudden emergence of a Jewish nation in the Middle East created tension for the Islamic countries. The Arab countries rejected the concept of a Jewish nation on Palestinian land and from here began the never-ending struggle.
In 1948, Jewish leaders announced the establishment of Israel but the Palestinians and their supporting Arab countries opposed it, which led to a war in the region. Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq jointly attacked Israel, but Israel had the support of many western countries including the US, which is why the country that emerged on the world map a few days ago was successful in winning the first Arab-Israeli conflict. During this war, about 7.5 lakh Palestinians had to be displaced from their homes, which was called Al-Nakba.
After this, many conflicts took place between Arab countries and Israel. In the 6-day war in 1967, Israel captured a large part of the land of Arab countries. This included the Gaza Strip, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Jordan's West Bank including East Jerusalem and Syria's Golan Heights. This time, 5 lakh Palestinians had to be displaced in the war. 6 years later, in 1973, Egypt and Syria once again fought a war against Israel and succeeded in regaining the Sinai Peninsula.
In 1982, Israel relinquished its hold on this part of Egypt but retained control over the Gaza Strip. About 6 years later, in 1988, a peace agreement was signed between Egypt and Israel. Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace agreement with Israel. Later, Jordan also signed a peace agreement with Israel.
The movement for the freedom of Palestine started taking roots in the Palestinian refugee camps displaced during these wars. After the 1967 war, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was made the head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). In fact, the PLO was formed in 1964 by merging several organizations, whose aim was to achieve the freedom and rights of Palestine.
When Israel occupied southern Lebanon
Around 1975, a conflict broke out between Shia and Sunni Muslims in Lebanon. Taking advantage of this, the PLO people started targeting Israel from the southern part of Lebanon. After this, Israel retaliated and occupied the southern part of Lebanon in June 1982.
After the agreement with Israel, PLO left Lebanon but Israel did not give up its occupation. Israel is accused of supporting proxy organizations in Lebanon's civil war and also helping in the Sabr and Shatila massacre. Israel is accused of helping the right-wing militia, which led to the killing of about 5,500 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese citizens in 2 days in Lebanon.
Hezbollah stood up with the support of Iran.
Meanwhile, the Islamic revolution took place in Iran in 1979, after which the government that came to power in Iran started strengthening and arming Shia Muslims in the surrounding areas. In the early 1980s, an organization called Hezbollah was formed with the support of Iran, which was given the responsibility of pushing Israel back in this region.
Is Hezbollah the only 'government' in Lebanon?
Hezbollah gradually started strengthening itself in Lebanon, and soon Hezbollah became the dominant force in Lebanon. The civil war ended in Lebanon in 1992 and with this Hezbollah also entered Lebanese politics. Hezbollah, who contested elections for the first time in 1992, won 8 out of 128 parliamentary seats. Since then, Hezbollah's stature in Lebanon's power kept increasing, at present it would not be wrong to say that the reins of Lebanon's government are in the hands of the Hezbollah chief.
24 years ago, Israel was successful in being driven out
There were many conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah after 1992. Israel kept increasing its military strength to remove Israel from southern Lebanon and finally, in May 2000, Hezbollah succeeded in driving Israel out. When the Israeli army officially withdrew from southern Lebanon about 24 years ago, the credit for this was given to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is a big threat to Israel.
When Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October last year, Israel retaliated and turned the entire Gaza into ruins. Israeli attacks have been going on in Gaza for almost a year now. Israel argues that this action will continue until it completely destroys Hamas. But Hezbollah considers this a genocide of the innocent people of Gaza. It says that until Israel stops attacking Gaza, it will have to face the challenge of Hezbollah.
Since the beginning of the war, Hezbollah has been continuously attacking North Israel, due to which about 60 thousand Jews have had to vacate that area. The Netanyahu government faces the challenge of re-settling these Jews in this area, but as long as Hezbollah's attacks continue, it will be difficult to do so. Therefore, Israel has started working on an aggressive strategy to reduce the power of Hezbollah. The explosions in thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon are considered to be a part of this strategy.