A war between Israel and Hezbollah took place in Lebanon for about 10 weeks in 2024 amid the Middle Eastern crisis. The war began in September 2024 following nearly 12 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, when the former initiated major attacks in Lebanon including an attack on pagers and electronic devices, the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and an aerial bombing campaign throughout the country. The war escalated on 1 October, when Israel crossed the Blue Line in its sixth invasion of Lebanon since 1978. On 26 November, Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire agreement, mediated by France and the United States. The ceasefire went into effect on 27 November, though some attacks continued as part of the broader conflict.
Hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel erupted shortly after Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, when Hezbollah joined the conflict in support of Hamas, launching rockets into northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Cross borders attacks resulted in a large number of displaced people on both sides of the border. Prior to the war, Israel had requested that Hezbollah implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 (UNSCR 1701) and withdraw its forces north of the Litani River. Hezbollah vowed to keep fighting until Israel halted its operations in Gaza. Diplomatic efforts from the United States and France proved ineffective in resolving the conflict by 18 September.
Afterwards, Israel commenced attacks throughout Lebanon throughout the rest of the month. The attacks saw heavy casualties, killing over 800 Lebanese people in one week in late September. Israel stated that it had been operating to remove the threat that Hezbollah's military capabilities was posing. At the start of the invasion in October, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) withdrew from parts of the Blue Line. On 27 November, the ceasefire agreement came into effect. Israel has reported 56 of its soldiers and 2,762 Hezbollah militants killed in the invasion, while the Lebanese government has reported Israel killing 2,720 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Israeli forces were to withdraw from Lebanon by 26 January 2025, but Israel refused to do so, leading to a new deadline of Israeli withdrawal by 18 February 2025. Israel did not fully withdraw by the new deadline, as it withdrew troops from Lebanese villages but kept Israeli forces maintaining five military outposts on highlands in Southern Lebanon.
Background
The last time Israel invaded southern Lebanon and engaged in ground combat with Hezbollah was during the month-long 2006 Lebanon War.
According to security expert Sobelman, Israel had spent two decades preparing for the next war with Hezbollah.
Shortly after the onset of the Gaza war in October 2023, Hezbollah joined the conflict, citing solidarity with Palestinians, which quickly escalated into regular cross-border military exchanges impacting areas in or around northern Israel, southern Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights of Syria. Hezbollah said it aimed to pressure Israel by forcing it to fight on two fronts. Hezbollah has offered an immediate ceasefire should a ceasefire also happen in Gaza. From 8 October 2023 to 20 September 2024, Hezbollah has launched 1,900 cross border attacks, and Israel has launched another 8,300. The fighting killed 564 in Lebanon (including 133 civilians), and 52 in Israel (including 27 civilians), displaced entire communities in Israel and Lebanon, with significant damage to civilian infrastructure.
Israel requested that Hezbollah implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 (UNSCR 1701) and withdraw its forces north of the Litani River. Hezbollah has stated it will continue attacking Israel until Israel halts its operations in Gaza. Both Israel and Hezbollah have outstanding obligations under UNSCR 1701. Hezbollah has established strong military presence in southern Lebanon, storing rockets in civilian sites, building tunnels into Israel, and obstructing United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon's (UNIFIL) access. Israel continues to occupy Ghajar and an adjacent area, and has repeatedly breached Lebanese airspace, waters, and borders. UNIFIL reports that Israel entered Lebanese airspace on more than 22,000 occasions between 2007 and 2021. Diplomatic efforts, led by US envoy Amos Hochstein and France, were not effective in resolving the conflict by 18 September 2024.
Start and prelude to invasion
September 2024 escalation
On 15 September, leaflets bearing an IDF logo were observed in southern Lebanon. They contained the text, "Hezbollah is firing from your area", urging residents to relocate north and to refrain from returning "until the war is over". The IDF said that they were distributed without senior authorization and that the incident was being investigated.
On 17 and 18 September, thousands of Hezbollah's handheld pagers and walkie-talkies exploded in a coordinated series of attacks. The explosions killed 42 people and injured at least 3,500, including civilians. Reuters reported that, according to an unnamed Hezbollah official, 1,500 Hezbollah fighters were taken out of action due to injuries, with many blinded or having lost their hands. Despite Israel denying involvement with the attack, unnamed Israeli sources told Reuters and other media that it was orchestrated by Israel's intelligence service (Mossad) and military. In response, Hezbollah, who described the attack as a possible declaration of war by Israel, launched a rocket attack on northern Israel a few days later.
On 20 September, tensions further rose after Ibrahim Aqil was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut, along with other senior commanders from the unit.
People in southern Lebanon and Beirut received mobile phone calls and messages that told them to relocate. IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a video address, "We advise civilians from Lebanese villages located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hezbollah for military purposes, such as those used to store weapons, to immediately evacuate for their own safety".
The IDF began a series of airstrikes on 23 September, killing over 800 and injuring more than 5,000 in the first week.
On 27 September 2024, Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, and several other senior Hezbollah leaders, including Ali Karaki, commander of Hezbollah's southern front, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. The strike took place while Hezbollah leaders were meeting at a headquarters located underground beneath residential buildings in Haret Hreik in the Dahieh suburb to the south of Beirut.
Previous Israeli oprtations
On 1 October, the IDF revealed that its special forces had carried out more than 70 small covert operations into southern Lebanon since November 2023, but had not clashed with Hezbollah fighters during these raids. The IDF said it had uncovered Hezbollah tunnels, weaponry, and invasion plans in villages near the border, including Ayta ash-Shaab, Mais al-Jabal and Kfar Kila. IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said they found Hezbollah plans to launch an attack similar to Hamas' 7 October attacks, which sparked the conflict. Hagari also mentioned that evidence from these operations, including videos and maps, would be presented to the international community. Hezbollah had not commented on his claims by the end of September.
Hagari alleged that the group was preparing for an attack similar to the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel.
Preparations for invasion
On 30 September, Israel informed the United States that it intended to carry out a ground maneuver in Lebanon aimed at clearing Hezbollah's militant infrastructure along the border. That evening, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) withdrew from the Israeli-Lebanese border to the north to a distance of 5 kilometres (3.1 mi; 2.7 nmi) from the border, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared that the communities of Metula, Misgav Am and Kfar Giladi are a closed military area. Since then the LAF has reported an incident of fire exchange with the IDF. IDF troops were amassing on the border in Southern Lebanon, with Israel stating that they were preparing for a limited ground operation, with no intentions for long-term occupation.
Invasion and timeline
1 October
On 1 October, IDF troops crossed the border into Lebanon in a series of small scale raids intended to precede a broader ground incursion. Witnesses have said that they have heard sounds of tanks in Southern Lebanon. There were also reports of heavy artillery striking the border towns of Southern Lebanon. On 1 October, the IDF confirmed the existence of their ground operation in a statement on Telegram, specifying that they intended to strike Hezbollah infrastructure. Shortly after the release of this statement, IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari also confirmed the operation. Prior to the release of these statements, the IDF had made no announcements about the operation. The IDF ordered residents of 25 villages in southern Lebanon to immediately relocate to north of the Awali River.
IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee said that heavy fighting was taking place in southern Lebanon with Hezbollah. He warned residents to not move in vehicles from north of Litani River to south of the river. The IDF also said that projectiles were launched to Avivim and Metula. However, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said they were not yet fighting Hezbollah face-to-face. Another Israeli military official said that they had not yet clashed with Hezbollah on the ground, and that IDF troops had so far been operating in villages only hundreds of meters across the border. Hezbollah denied that Israeli troops had entered Lebanon.
The IDF said that in coordination with the Intelligence Division, IDF forces led by the Northern Command and special forces had captured Hezbollah infrastructure in the towns of Kafr Kila, Ayta ash Shab, Meiss Ej Jabal amongst other sites and destroyed the facilities after they were abandoned after the retreat of Hezbollah. Hezbollah also claimed that it had targeted IDF soldiers in towns opposite of Odaisseh and Kafr Kila.
The IAF struck 100 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon while soldiers of the Northern Command destroyed several military sites and weapons.
An Israeli strike on a house in Al-Dawoudiya killed at least ten people and injured five others.
Retaliation by Hezbollah
Hezbollah launched ten rockets from southern Lebanon to Israel and a drone towards central Israel. Hezbollah said that it targeted IDF sites, Israeli communities and soldiers with 12 separate strikes. Three rockets were launched from Lebanon towards Upper Galilee. Hezbollah said that it targeted Israeli soldiers in Metula with rockets and artillery.
"A number of" rockets were launched from Lebanon to Israel, moderately injuring two people. Hezbollah said that it targeted Unit 8200 headquarters in Tel Aviv with Fadi-4 rockets and Mossad headquarters in the suburbs of Tel Aviv. Approximately 30 rockets were launched from Lebanon towards northern Israel. Hezbollah said that its missiles targeted Sde Dov, an airport and airbase in the outskirts of Tel Aviv that was closed and demolished more than four years before the attack.
Israeli strikes elsewhere
The IDF called for evacuations of at least 500 meters from particular buildings with Hezbollah facilities in parts of southern Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, as they were preparing to bomb them. The IDF conducted at least two airstrikes in Dahieh. The IDF said that Muhammad Jaafar Qasir, a Hezbollah commander responsible for transferring Iranian weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, was killed in an airstrike in Beirut. The IDF said that it killed the commander of Hezbollah's Imam Hussein division in an airstrike in Beirut.
An Israeli strike on the house of Munir al-Maqdah, a brigadier general of Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Lebanon in Ein al-Hilweh refugee camp killed at least five people.
Syrian military sources said that Israel struck two Syrian anti-aircraft radar stations west of Sweida and a Syrian anti-aircraft radar station in Daraa Governorate.
Iranian strikes on Israel
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched at least 181 missiles toward Israel, with at least one building being hit in Tel Aviv. The attack was in response to the assassination of Abbas Nilforoushan, Hassan Nasrallah and Ismail Haniyeh. At least two Israelis were injured in Tel Aviv and a Palestinian was killed by shrapnel in Nu'eima, West Bank.
2 October
On 2 October, Israeli forces were ambushed by Hezbollah fighters in Odaisseh and forced to retreat while attempting to dismantle militant infrastructure. Six soldiers from the Egoz Unit were killed and several others were injured, including five seriously. The IDF said that another 20 Hezbollah militants were killed during the clash. Two soldiers of the Golani Brigade were killed and another was injured in combat in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah said it destroyed three Merkava tanks with guided missiles as they approached Maroun al-Ras. A medic from the brigade was injured in a separate incident. The IDF also announced that an officer of the Paratroopers Brigade's 202nd Battalion was killed in combat.
An Israeli air strike destroyed three houses in the Bekaa Valley killing 11 people.
More forces from the IDF 36th Division entered southern Lebanon including the Golani Brigade, the 188th Armored Brigade, the Etzioni Reserve Brigade and the 282nd Artillery Brigade.
Hezbollah fired around 100 rockets at northern Israel. Hezbollah said that it targeted areas north of Haifa using missiles. It also targeted Shtula and Israeli infantry in Misgav Am.
Beirut suburbs strike
Israeli aircraft struck the southern suburbs of Beirut. Israeli soldiers from the 98th division's two Brigades managed to capture a Hezbollah installation in southern Lebanon capturing a large cache of weaponry, ammunition amongst other things as well as claiming to have captured/destroyed 150 Hezbollah targets in Southern Lebanon in coordination with IAF. After the airstrike, Beirut residents reported a sulphur-like smell. The National News Agency reported that Israel had used phosphorus bombs in the heavily populated Bashoura district. According to Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, the use of phosphorus bombs in civilian areas is prohibited.