Israeli Campaign Against Hezbollah

On 8 October 2023 Hezbollah opened fire on northern Israel in support of Hamas, and for nearly a year rockets, anti-tank missiles and drones kept some 60,000 Israelis out of their homes along the border; on 27 July 2024 a rocket killed 12 Druze children on a soccer field in Majdal Shams. In September 2024 Israel struck back dramatically: on 17–18 September thousands of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies, supplied to Hezbollah through Mossad front companies, exploded across Lebanon and Syria, wounding thousands of operatives and crippling the organization's communications.

Israel then killed most of Hezbollah's top command: military chief Fuad Shukr in July 2024, Radwan Force commander Ibrahim Aqil on 20 September, secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah in his underground headquarters in Beirut's Dahiyeh on 27 September, and his expected successor Hashem Safieddine in early October. A ground operation in southern Lebanon from 1 October destroyed tunnels, weapons depots and border positions. A US- and French-brokered ceasefire took effect on 27 November 2024, with Israel continuing strikes against rearmament, and weeks later the fall of the Assad regime cut Hezbollah's overland supply route from Iran.