Lebanon War Reboot? While the conflict in the Middle East is continuing to ramp up, including the U.S. and Iran firing at each other and other countries like Saudi Arabia joining the fighting, Israel has mostly stayed out of the fray of late.
However, there are signs of unrest in that part of the conflict, with Israel accusing Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire.
Merkava Tank Firing. Image Credit: IDF.
Merkava Tank Israel. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
According to News 18, the IDF has accused the Iran-backed Hezbollah of a “blatant violation of the ceasefire,” after the group reportedly fired an explosive drone at an Israeli engineering vehicle in southern Lebanon, in the security zone that Israel is operating near the border.
“Overnight, Hezbollah launched an explosive drone toward an IDF engineering vehicle in the area of Ali al-Taher Ridge within the Security Zone,” the IDF said in a statement. No one was injured in the incident.
Per the New York Times, the incident raises concerns about escalation in the region. Hezbollah, per the Times, did not claim responsibility for the drone strike and accused Israel of “false pretexts.”
The Earlier War
In March, Hezbollah joined the war on the side of Iran, which led to the deaths of 4,300 people in Lebanon and 1 million people displaced, the Times said, with four Israeli civilians and more than 30 soldiers killed. The sides agreed on a ceasefire in early June.
After that war ended, Israel has continued to maintain a presence in Lebanon.
In the months since, the sides had been working together on “a framework agreement intended to wind down the conflict,” with multiple stages of talks.
The talks, per the Times, would entail Israel gradually withdrawing from parts of Southern Lebanon with the Lebanese Armed Forces moving to secure those areas.
The AP reported in early July that the talks between Israel and Lebanon were deepening divisions in Lebanon, with Hezbollah supporters protesting and one Hezbollah legislator, Hassan Fadlallah, saying that the Lebanese government “will not be able to enforce the agreement signed in Washington unless they go, with American support, to civil war.”
“I am not looking for a confrontation with Hezbollah, but neither myself nor anyone in the government will accept to be blackmailed by Hezbollah,” Lebanon’s prime minister, Nawaf Salam, told local television in June, per the AP.
The framework reached in late June “envisioned” Israel agreeing to withdraw from Lebanon, with Hezbollah agreeing to disarm, although the framework was vague about timelines.
Bibi in Washington
The incident comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington earlier this week.
The prime minister met with President Trump at the White House and also attended the funeral of Sen. Lindsey Graham.
It was Trump and Netanyahu’s first in-person meeting since the launch of the joint war earlier this year.
“We have a little difference, but pretty close,” Trump said before the meeting, per the Washington Post. “Iran took a beating over the last 14 days, and they asked us very nicely, ‘Please stop, let’s meet,’ and that’s where we are right now. We’ll see what happens. If we don’t make a deal, we go back to the same thing.”
Axios shared some details about the meeting at the White House.
The prime minister stated that the sides discussed pressuring Iran “through kinetic and non-kinetic means,” in the words of a senior Israeli official. Netanyahu, meanwhile, expressed skepticism about the possibility of a deal with Iran.
The meeting took place hours before Iran launched ballistic missile attacks at a U.S. military base in Jordan, although the U.S. claimed all of those missiles were intercepted.
More Lebanon Trouble
Meanwhile, there was some other Lebanon-related trouble for the Israeli prime minister.
According to the Associated Press, Netanyahu met with and was photographed this week in Washington with Antoun Sehnaoui, a Lebanese banker, at a memorial dinner for Sen. Graham.
And as a result, more than a dozen Lebanese lawyers have filed a complaint with a prosecutor’s office, claiming that Sehnaoui violated Lebanese laws by meeting with the prime minister.
That’s because laws in Lebanon forbid contact with Israelis.
The banker, the complaint said, is accused of “the crimes of contacting and dealing with the Israeli enemy, violating the Israel boycott law, the crime of treason and state security crimes.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
