At the end of September, Israel quadrupled its attacks on Lebanese territory as it launched a ground invasion of the country. These airstrikes are not simply a Lebanese issue, they are part of a wider ongoing conflict involving Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Iran.
With the new “blessing and curse” maps Netanyahu has created, more and more countries have become involved in what used to be a relatively local issue. It is not World War III yet, but it may become a much larger global problem.
To understand the conflict, the major players must be explained. Hezbollah is both a Lebanese political party, and an armed group with strongholds in the south of Lebanon and Beirut. It does, however, have extremely strong ties with Iran, which has been using Hezbollah as essentially part of an Iranian overseas military – Iran funds and gives weapons to Hezbollah, and in return they protect and serve Iranian interests in the region.
This is why Iranian airstrikes into Israel are particularly startling, as it marks an escalation from proxy conflict through Hezbollah into direct conflict, signalling Iran as an official player.
So far, there have been two weeks of Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon and days of Israeli ground operations; the result has been devastating on the Lebanese people. Over 2000 people have been killed, many of whom are not Hezbollah operatives but just innocent civilians trying to survive. More than one million people have been displaced and forced to flee their homes in the south to try and get to the north.
British nationals in Lebanon, however, have an escape route as the UK government chartered a flight from Lebanon back to the UK, with Foreign Secretary David Lammy saying the situation is “volatile and has the potential to deteriorate quickly.” Many Lebanese people do not have that same option, with most of the 900 shelters in Lebanon being completely full, and with masses of people sleeping in parks, streets, even on beaches – many of whom are families with children.
Despite this, the Lebanese people have unwavering humanity, and a faith that can never be shaken. Jidarsot.com is a website where people in Lebanon can rate sound barrier breaches created by fighter jets in quips like “a loud fart” and “didn’t even hear it. Such FOMO :(“. Although this is humorous, it is part of a more serious initiative to track in which areas breaches are being heard, and their intensity.
Iran has now officially entered into the conflict as they have launched almost 200 ballistic missiles into Israel, with only one casualty as most missiles were intercepted. Israel’s population of ten million were told to evacuate to bomb shelters, with some air bases being hit, but damage being minimal.
Before this, on April 13th, Iran launched an attack on Israel with over 300 ballistic missiles and drones, but did not do much damage. Israel then responded with an attack on one Iranian air base. While some considered this to be measured, implying that Iran and Israel would prefer a de-escalation, the most recent attack is much less restrained.
Not only is Iran now outwardly entering the conflict, it is including other major Middle Eastern countries, notably Saudi Arabia, as Saudi Arabia and Iran have boosted their diplomatic ties after Iranian missile strikes on Israel, with the Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud saying that Saudi Arabia trusts Iran in managing the situation with Israel.
However, Iran is not the only country involving other powers, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held up two maps of the Middle East while addressing the United Nations (UN). One he called a “blessing” including Egypt, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia – countries which he planned to connect using railways. The other, however, he described as a “curse” and an “arc of terror” consisting of Syria, Iraq, and Iran. This is what worries people that World War III may be imminent, or at least a Middle Eastern war, as more countries are becoming involved.
This is worrying as US influence and control over the situation has been waning; although US officials may have believed they had convinced Israel to back down from a full invasion, it seems that the Biden administration has been unable to stop Netanyahu from causing mass devastation in Lebanon and from escalating conflict with Hezbollah and Iran.
My own family in Lebanon have told me that the two hour drive from our village in the south to Beirut has now become over 20 hours. Our family group chat, once used for photos of barbecues and invitations for dinner, became filled with voice messages asking each other where they are, if they’re safe, what roads are okay to drive on and which ones are getting bombed.
It is easy, in Manchester, to feel safe and separated from the conflict, but when your aunts and cousins are sending you videos of your beautiful town reduced to rubble, it is important to have the empathy, regardless of which side you are on, to remove the wall of indifference, the wall that is created from constantly seeing dead bodies on every social media and every news outlet, and remember that these people are human beings. One can not be accustomed to missiles and destruction, to not being able to mourn a family member before another one is killed. They have hearts, souls. They breathe the same air and love with the same intensity. It isn’t World War III yet, but people are still hurting.
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