For less than a month, the conflict between the Jewish state and Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran has accelerated. A spiral of violence initiated by the start of the Israeli intervention in Gaza.
The Middle East has been the scene for several weeks of increasingly violent military operations between Israel, Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah. And this while Israel has been at war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip for a year and is accused of having killed its leader, Ismaïl Haniyeh, in Tehran in July.
The Iranian bombings on the Jewish state on Tuesday, October 1, mark a new step in the acceleration of the conflict between the three belligerents.
· The explosion of pagers as a trigger
Tensions reached a first level on September 17, the day Israel managed to trigger a series of beeper explosions in Lebanon and Syria. An operation directly targeting members of Hezbollah who used these small devices to communicate without being listened to by the Israeli secret services. The next day, a similar operation, this time targeting exploding walkie-talkies.
In total, the death toll from transmission device explosions stands at 37, according to the Lebanese Minister of Health.
Israel’s responsibility in this new type of attack was quickly pointed out by Hezbollah. “We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression, which also affected civilians and resulted in numerous martyrs and injuries,” the pro-Iranian movement wrote in a statement. For its part, Israel did not claim responsibility for this series of explosions.
Conflagration in the Middle East: what the Iranian attack on Israel changes
· Israeli strikes on several Hezbollah executives
Israel has carried out several strikes on Lebanon, following the explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies. In the sights of IDF aviation, the southern suburbs of Beirut where several Hezbollah executives were eliminated. Among them, Ibrahim Aqil, head of the Lebanese movement’s elite unit, and Mohammed Srour, head of Hezbollah’s drone unit.
These strikes also killed many civilians, according to daily reports from the Lebanese Ministry of Health. According to Lebanese authorities, a million civilians have been forced to leave their homes since these strikes began.
· Hezbollah leader killed in Israeli strike
Ten days after the pager episode, the conflict gained further intensity when the Hebrew state succeeded in neutralizing the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, in a strike near Beirut on September 27. To carry out this operation, while its target was very discreet about its movements, the Israeli secret services carried out careful preparation.
“We used the intelligence we had collected for years, we had real-time information and we carried out this strike,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Nadav Shoshani, spokesperson for the Israeli army.
The blasting of the pagers was part of Mossad’s strategy to take down Nasrallah. Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, was also killed.
In response to the loss of its leader, Hezbollah fired rockets toward a kibbutz and military targets in northern Israel.
· The IDF ground incursion into southern Lebanon
Regional tensions increased during the night of September 30 to October 1, the time chosen by the Israeli army to carry out a ground incursion into southern Lebanon. “Limited ground raids” targeting Hezbollah bases and caches according to the IDF, which reported eight soldiers dead this Wednesday, October 2.
According to Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari, Hezbollah was preparing “an October 7-style invasion into Israeli homes.” Israel intensified this incursion by sending armored vehicles and additional infantry this Wednesday, October 2.
· Iran’s massive bombing of Israel
The high point of tensions between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran was reached this Tuesday, October 1 when Tehran launched between 180 and 200 missiles at Israel. A massive attack which left two Israelis lightly injured and one dead on the Palestinian side, in the West Bank.
The Iranian chief of staff affirmed that the missiles had targeted “the three main military air bases of the Zionist regime, the Mossad (Israeli secret services, Editor’s note), center of terror, the Nevatim air base for planes F-35 and Hatzerim Air Base, which was used to assassinate martyr Nasrallah.”
These bombings are a direct response to the eliminations by Israeli forces of the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah. “In response to the martyrs of Ismail Haniyeh, Hassan Nasrallah and Abbas Nilforoushan (deputy head of the Guards), we targeted the heart of the occupied territories” (Israel), the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the attack that Iran had “committed a serious mistake” by attacking his country, and that it would pay “the price”, Israel being determined to bring “accountability to his enemies.”
Sylvain Allemand and Matthieu Heyman