CROSS-BORDER CROSSFIRE: THE BEIRUT CHAPTER
Cross-border crossfire: The Beirut chapter
Tanya Vatsa laments the start of yet another episode in the ongoing violence impacting the Middle East
Even as the situation in Gaza worsens, Tel Aviv is preparing for war on another front. Lebanon has witnessed a slew of blasts and airstrikes in a prelude to Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims of a planned ground invasion. This is an escalation in their conflict against the Axis of Resistance, led by Iran.
With the war continuing against Hamas, Israel is seeking to escalate its long-term confrontation with Hezbollah by invading Lebanon, with which it shares a northern border. This zone has been turbulent for the past 11 months, given the missile exchange between the two countries.
Serial explosions of telecommunications devices rocked Lebanon during working hours on September 17. The pager blasts were followed by synchronised explosions of walkie-talkies the next day. Targeted at members of Hezbollah, the blasts nevertheless killedover a score of people and critically injured thousands, including civilians. These highly skilled targeted attacks mark a monumental development in technological warfare, as they were remarkable for the sophistication and precision of the military operation. This opens the floodgates to the ‘banality of destruction’.
Intriguing questions must now be asked, such as: why target pagers? And how were the perpetrators able to cause the synchronised detonation of the devices?
The incidents show Tel Aviv’s deep infiltration of Hezbollah’s communication networks. Two firms based in Taiwan and Hungary were connected to the manufacturing of the pagers but have denied any involvement. A firm in Japan has declared that it stopped making the walkie-talkies ten years ago and hence cannot be connected to the supply of the devices. Hezbollah had ordered a new batch of pagers, which seem to have been meticulously intercepted, tampered with and then placed back into the supply chain, without arising suspicion. The explosives hidden in the batteries could not be traced as the pagers made their way to Lebanon. This supply chain disruption, used as an enabler to booby-trap a communication device, has left many both in awe and aghast, in light of itshuge potential to harm non-combatants in future conflicts.
This, however, is not the first instance where an everyday device has been used as an explosive. In 1996, Israel assassinated the Hamas bomb-maker Yahya Ayyash through the explosion of his cellphone. The incident deterred the Axis from using cellphones; since then, Hezbollah has used pagers, a low technological means of communication, to evade location tracking by Israel.
Tehran has remained staggeringly silent, despite the injury caused to the Iranian ambassador in Beirut during the explosions
With the recent explosions having initiated a spate of investigations into the production and supply of the devices, the involvement of shell companies across different countries exposes the transnational nexus between businesses, political outfits and military establishments. The irony of the incident lies in the involvement of state and non-state actors and the prolonged enmity impacting the communities on both sides of the border. The collective concern is whether such attack tactics violate international human rights law, and the lack of regard for the people or places where the devices might detonate is indeed troubling. These recent explosions occurred in public places, impacting non-combatants and civilians, which is an act prohibited under international law. Booby-trapping devices designed for common public use, which may well find their way into the hands of civilians, grossly trivialises human life. Such explosions, despite being precisely targeted, cause indiscriminate harm, and are at the core of reasons for mandating the regulation of conflicts and weighing military advantage against collateral damage.
Israel has made the resettlement of its community at the northern border a war goal. The border is notorious for missile exchanges with the Hezbollah establishment in South Lebanon and may also be one of the underlying reasons for the declaration of a full-blown attack on Lebanon. The plan, however, appears similar to the one executed in Gaza, which has seen a catastrophic scale of civilian damage under the garb of eliminating Hamas. Sceptics are also proposing that the war in Lebanon is meant to distract the world from the prolonged invasion of Gaza. Israel’s aggression is not unforeseen, nor is Hezbollah’s resistance, in order to neutralise escalation of the situation, considering their relentless military intervention against the invasion of Gaza in solidarity with Hamas.
Neither the West nor Hezbollah’s ally Iran seems invested or interested in a second war in the region
The element of surprise came from Tehran, which has remained staggeringly silent, despite the injury caused to the Iranian ambassador in Beirut during the explosions. The sudden death of the hardliner leader Raisi and his replacement by the moderate Pezeshkian seems suspiciously well-timed for Tel Aviv and its objective of reclaiming the Jewish homeland. Tehran’s reaction to these attacks has been largely non-existent, compared to the barrage of missiles which were launched after its embassy in Syria was targeted. Pezeshkian, on the other hand, has declared that Iran is now open to negotiations with the West regarding the 2015 nuclear deal and economic sanctions. The Ayatollah has criticised the passivity of the new administration, yet has refrained from making any public calls for retaliation in support of Hezbollah.
As Lebanon braces itself for a ground invasion, there are twofold considerations. While the Israeli military is technologically and militarily advanced, their resources are spread thin and the prolonged war in Gaza may have caused fatigue within the fighting core. The second consideration is the capacity building of Hezbollah’s human and military resources, as evidenced by their advanced drone and missile systems.
On the other hand, neither the West nor Hezbollah’s ally Iran seems invested or interested in a second war in this tumultuous region. Yet, despite the collective reluctance, war is far from a distant reality. Tel Aviv previously invaded and captured the South Lebanon region in 1982. The occupation ended in 2000, only for another violent escalation to erupt in 2006. The result was appalling for the citizens of Lebanon,with post-war devastation in the Lebanese territory.
At the turn of the century, one could not have envisaged that the world would become a trove of ‘forgotten crises’, with one period of mayhem superseded by another. The dehumanisation is surpassed only by the avaricious quest for political power, fuelled by an utter disregard for human life and dignity.
Tanya Vatsa is currently the Geopolitical and Predictive Intelligence specialist at Inquest Advisories in India, as well as Editor at the Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, Dept of Defence, United States of America. She completed her Master’s in Legal Studies at the University of Edinburgh after obtaining a law degree from Lucknow’s National Law University, India