{"id":479140,"date":"2026-06-06T09:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T09:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/479140\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T09:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T09:59:11","slug":"israeli-offensive-in-lebanon-gives-hezbollah-new-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/479140\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli offensive in Lebanon gives Hezbollah new purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beqaa Valley, Lebanon\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n Not too long ago, Hezbollah was proclaimed all but defeated.\n <\/p>\n

\n Israel\u2019s devastating military and clandestine campaigns had left the group close to \u201cdemise,\u201d opined regional experts. The fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad removed a key regional ally who helped to funnel weapons and supplies to the group.\n <\/p>\n

\n Israel killed its longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in 2024. Lebanon and Israel engaged in direct US-brokered talks for the first time in decades. The Lebanese government was working to disarm the group entirely.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now, following the US and Israel\u2019s decision to attack Iran, the group appears more emboldened \u2013 and relevant \u2013 than ever.\n <\/p>\n

\n STREAMING NOW: CNN gets rare access to question a Hezbollah fighter in Lebanon. Upgrade to watch the full report.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhat the Israelis have done is completely revitalize Hezbollah\u2019s resistance rationale,\u201d Nicholas Blanford, an analyst with the Atlantic Council based in Beirut, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHezbollah is taking a lot of hits, they\u2019re taking a lot of casualties on the front lines, but my understanding is that morale is high and they\u2019re prepared for a long fight.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Recent ceasefire agreements between Israel and the Lebanese government have done little to stem the fighting.\n <\/p>\n

\n The latest, agreed to<\/a> on Wednesday in Washington, would require Hezbollah to immediately stop firing, withdraw from the south, and eventually disarm. Both Israel and Hezbollah have breached previous agreements.\n <\/p>\n

\n Israel had continuously attacked Lebanon since a November 2024 ceasefire, alleging that Hezbollah failed to withdraw from border areas. But Hezbollah refrained from attacking back. That changed on March 2, when the US and Israel began a war with Iran, and Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen the Israeli-American war again restarted the war against Iran, we felt this is a proper window to respond,\u201d Ibrahim Al Moussawi, a Hezbollah member of Lebanon\u2019s parliament, told CNN in Beirut.\n <\/p>\n

\n Israel has taken that as carte blanche to massively step up its offensive \u2013 invading the south, displacing a million civilians and killing more than 3,000, according to the Lebanese government.\n <\/p>\n

\n That has put Hezbollah back in the position in which it is most comfortable: Claiming the mantle of defending the Lebanese people.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s not something that we like to do,\u201d Moussawi claimed. \u201cWe are forced to do it. We are obliged to do because the government didn\u2019t do its job.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Israeli strikes have reduced the group\u2019s ability to launch rockets, but it has adapted, using explosive drones piloted via fiber optic cables to bypass Israeli defenses in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah\u2019s heartland, striking missile defense batteries and troops stationed in the country.\n <\/p>\n

\n It has killed 15 Israeli soldiers since a tenuous ceasefire was agreed to in mid-April.\n <\/p>\n

\"Family<\/p>\n

\"Israeli<\/p>\n

\n But its most potent advantage is undoubtedly its ability to engender fearsome loyalty from many young Lebanese Shia Muslims.\n <\/p>\n

\n These fighters rarely speak with Western media. But in a remote field in the Beqaa Valley on the country\u2019s eastern border, one 30-year-old just back from southern Lebanon agreed to speak with CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n The meeting was fraught with danger. Despite the leaders of Israel and Lebanon agreeing to a ceasefire, Israel has continued to occupy a swath of southern Lebanon and carries out strikes against what it says are Hezbollah targets across the country on a daily basis, including in the central Beqaa Valley. Late last month, its forces crossed the Litani river, pushing further into southern Lebanon in what Israeli officials say is an effort to ensure the security of northern Israel.\n <\/p>\n

\n Hezbollah has said it is attacking Israeli forces in response to the Israel Defense Forces\u2019 continued occupation.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cCivilians are being killed. They want to take our land,\u201d the fighter said of the Israelis. \u201cThey have a plan to occupy our land to achieve their goal. God willing, we won\u2019t let them do that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n An arms smuggler in Beqaa, who requested anonymity because he feared for his life, told CNN that Assad\u2019s fall in Syria had made his job much more difficult. But weapons are almost certainly still getting through. Syrian authorities regularly boast of seizing weapons headed for Lebanon.\n <\/p>\n

\n The idea that he would ever lay down his arms, the Hezbollah fighter said, was fanciful. \u201cWhenever a leader is killed, there is a new leader. And whenever we lose someone who is replaced by someone else, we become stronger and remain steadfast.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n To many Shia Lebanese, Hezbollah \u2013 literally \u201cGod\u2019s Party\u201d \u2013 is known simply as \u201cthe resistance.\u201d To the American government and European Union, it is a designated terrorist organization.\n <\/p>\n

\n But it is far more than just a militant organization. The group emerged, with Iranian patronage, from the 1982 Israeli occupation of Beirut. As it became entrenched in daily Lebanese life, it disavowed its original goal of creating an Islamic state and entered the fray of fractured Lebanese democracy, where the president is a Christian, the prime minister is a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament is a Shia Muslim.\n <\/p>\n

\n Hezbollah now has 15 members in the country\u2019s 128-seat parliament. Among them is the British-educated Moussawi.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe stopped for 15 months,\u201d he told CNN of Hezbollah\u2019s war with Israel, referencing the November 2024 ceasefire that ended on March 2. \u201cThe Israelis continued to carry out aggression. So there was one point when we have to respond to all of these aggressions.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Ibrahim<\/p>\n

\n Despite continued Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon in the 15 months after the 2024 ceasefire \u2013 Israel says answering alleged Hezbollah violations \u2013 the group\u2019s decision to launch missiles at Israel on March 2 in response to the assassination of Iran\u2019s supreme leader has proved highly controversial.\n <\/p>\n

\n The government, which under the terms of the ceasefire with Israel was responsible for security in southern Lebanon, condemned Hezbollah\u2019s attack.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe Lebanese state declares its absolute rejection, leaving no room for any ambiguity or interpretation, of any military or security actions launched from the Lebanese territory,\u201d Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on March 2. He declared \u201cthe immediate prohibition of all Hezbollah\u2019s security and military activities as being outside the law.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In the weeks since, the government has voiced its determination to prevent Lebanon being dragged into a civil conflict.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019d prefer to avoid a confrontation with Hezbollah, but believe me, we won\u2019t be intimidated,\u201d Salam said during a trip to Paris in April. \u201cNot by Hezbollah, and certainly not by those who are blowing the hot and cold air of civil war.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In a rare interview on Friday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told CNN\u2019s Christiane Amanpour<\/a> that \u201cthe people of Lebanon are paying the price\u201d for Iran\u2019s interests in the region. \u201cThey deserve not seeing their homes destroyed every five to 10 years,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lebanon\u2019s fractured system of government makes those fears of civil war or sectarian strife more potent. The delicate balance was upended for 15 years, between 1975 and 1990, when a deadly civil war tore the country apart.\n <\/p>\n

\n Moussawi denied that the group was acting above the state but contended that the Lebanese Armed Forces\u2019 weakness left Hezbollah with no choice but to respond.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHad they been doing their job in the first place, we wouldn\u2019t have gotten into it,\u201d he said, rejecting any responsibility for inviting Israel\u2019s wrath, and the devastation it has brought.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAbsolutely not,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are not waiting for an excuse. The international community bears responsibility. America bears responsibility.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n It is difficult to know exactly where Hezbollah stands with Lebanon\u2019s public. The group is unpopular among many in the country\u2019s sizeable Christian minority. But displays of support remain prominent among the country\u2019s Shia, who have suffered most from Israel\u2019s bombardment of the south, and Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs.\n <\/p>\n

\n When Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the Iran war, on March 2, the general reaction even among Shia was \u201cOh my God what have you done?\u201d Blanford, the Beirut-based analyst, said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBut within two or three weeks, they saw that Hezbollah was fighting back, that they were causing casualties within the Israeli ranks.\u201d In short, the group was \u201cback doing what it was born to do: Resisting Israeli occupation.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But there are signs that some Shia Muslims are growing more comfortable speaking out in opposition to its actions. In a poll by the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar last year, 75% of respondents said they considered Israel to be an enemy, but an even greater number, 79%, said they viewed the role of Iran \u2013 which backs Hezbollah \u2013 negatively.\n <\/p>\n

\n Among them is Mona Jahamy, a schoolteacher displaced to northern Lebanon from the southern city of Tyre. Her Facebook screeds against Hezbollah have resulted in threatening voice notes sent from the group\u2019s supporters, she told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIn 2024, my house was almost devastated,\u201d she said, speaking at a caf\u00e9 in Beirut\u2019s picturesque downtown. \u201cIt took me a year to reconstruct, to redo everything. I haven\u2019t even taken a deep breath. Then another war.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Mona<\/p>\n

\n She has no illusions about who is dropping the bombs on her hometown. \u201cIsrael is a very hostile and aggressive country,\u201d she said. But there, she has little influence, while closer to home some may heed her warnings.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere is a ferocious lion,\u201d she said. \u201cI tell you, \u2018Keep your hand away from the lion. He might bite you. He will bite you\u2026 You keep on teasing him. So, he bites you. And more than that, you release the lion against everyone around you. This is what Hezbollah has done.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cLet the lion stay in its place.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Rayhana Zaiter and Rami Aycha contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beqaa Valley, Lebanon\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Not too long ago, Hezbollah was proclaimed all but defeated. Israel\u2019s devastating military and clandestine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-479140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}