What makes southern Lebanon crucial in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah?

Hezbollah’s deep entrenchment in southern Lebanon endangers Israeli civilians, forcing Israel to push for a security zone to protect its borders.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

The volatile region of southern Lebanon has long been a flashpoint in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Its proximity to northern Israel, combined with terrain favorable for guerrilla warfare, makes the region a strategic asset for Hezbollah. From southern Lebanon, Israeli cities such as Haifa, Safed and Nahariya are well within range of Hezbollah missiles, while terrorists firing smaller anti-tank missiles terrify smaller communities near the border.

Hezbollah maintains weapons depots, launch facilities, ammunition factories, command centers and a network of tunnels throughout southern Lebanon. These are the assets of Hezbollah that Israel wants to remove with its ground operation while a security zone is established.

Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, the Iran-backed terror group began firing rockets and drones at communities in northern Israel, killing 49 people. According to figures released by the government on September 29, more than 68,000 residents of northern Israel have been driven from their homes. Hezbollah leaders have repeatedly said they would continue the attacks to prevent Israelis from returning to their homes.

To secure the return of Israelis to their homes, officials have floated the idea of ​​setting up a security zone in southern Lebanon.

The Litani River and the Bekaa Valley
The main features of southern Lebanon are the Litani River and the Bekaa Valley.

“The Litani River is a natural border,” Prof. Eyal Zisser, vice chancellor of Tel Aviv University and senior research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East Studies, told the Israeli Press Service. With a length of 140 km, the Litani is the longest river in Lebanon and originates in the east of Lebanon near the city of Baalbek. The river follows the Bekaa Valley south before turning west and finally reaching the Mediterranean Sea near the city of Tyre.

Under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah is prohibited from operating south of the Litani.

Since the start of the ground war, the Israeli army has warned Lebanese not to drive south of the Litani River until further notice.

“Intense fighting is underway in southern Lebanon, with Hezbollah operatives using the civilian environment and you as a human shield to organize to carry out attacks,” Colonel Avichay Adraee, the army’s Arabic-language spokesman, tweeted on Tuesday. “For your safety, we ask that you avoid movement in vehicles from the north to the south of the Litani River.”

The Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon is located between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges. The approximately 120-kilometer-long valley provides Hezbollah easy access to Syria and is a major land route for Iranian arms smuggling. Israeli officials have indicated that cutting off Hezbollah’s weapons supplies would require access to Beka.

The valley’s relatively flat terrain makes it an ideal area for Hezbollah to store heavy weapons and maintain logistics hubs further away from the Israeli border. At the same time, the country’s agricultural productivity provides food and resources to Hezbollah.

A Hezbollah stronghold
Since its founding in the early 1980s, Hezbollah has built a strong base in the predominantly Shia regions of southern Lebanon. The group has embedded itself in local communities, providing social services, building infrastructure and providing security – in place of the Lebanese government.

In addition, TPS-IL has learned that Hezbollah has adopted what Christians describe as “mafia tactics,” entrenching its forces in Christian communities, stealing property and extorting business owners.

“For nearly two decades, Hezbollah groups have systematically oppressed Christians in southern Lebanon, seizing homes and factories for use by Hezbollah members,” a southern Lebanese Christian told TPS-IL after being evacuated to Beirut.

Elias Zarina, a Jerusalem-based researcher and specialist in the Christian and other minority communities in the Middle East, told TPS-IL: “Hezbollah has tried to take over the houses and force them to leave. Hezbollah’s goal is to take control of all of southern Lebanon and store rockets in private homes. The more properties they control, the safer it is for Hezbollah figures to operate.”

Regarding rocket launchers, Zarina – who is also co-founder and community manager of the Jerusalemite Initiative, a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization that encourages Arabic-speaking integration into Israeli society – explained: “Hezbollah stores the trucks and launchers in a facility. inside, says Nabatiye. When they are ready to fire, they appear in the village and choose a time to launch the fire.”

After the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Israel maintained a security zone in southern Lebanon for almost two decades. The Israeli forces abruptly withdrew in 2000 while Hezbollah remained. The Second War in Lebanon broke out in 2006 when Hezbollah killed eight soldiers and kidnapped two.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701
That war ended when Israel and Hezbollah accepted UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

The resolution called for “the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon” and emphasized that southern Lebanon should be demilitarized, with the exception of Lebanese government forces and UNIFIL peacekeepers. No foreign military force would operate in Lebanon without government permission.

But Hezbollah has never disarmed or withdrawn from the “Blue Line,” as the border between Israel and Lebanon is often called. The Lebanese government never expanded its control over southern Lebanon. And Hezbollah’s foreign allies, such as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Hamas, have operated there openly.

Most analysts TPS-IL spoke to agreed that it would take three weeks to three months for Israel to create a security zone in southern Lebanon so that residents of the north could return home.

Professor Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, told TPS-IL: “We cannot allow another eleven months to tackle Hezbollah in the north,” Michael emphasized. “It has to happen faster.”

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