Did Hezbollah neglect to protect civilians in southern Lebanon?
October 16, 2024
Emergency teams and civilians are seen around a car which was left unusable after an Israeli army unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attack which killed one person and caused harm in Sidon of Lebanon on August 21, 2024
[Stringer/Anadolu Agency]
by Nidal Adaileh
As soon as Hezbollah entered the war with Israel by firing rockets across the border in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza on 8 October last year, thousands of families in southern Lebanon rushed to pack up their belongings and head north. As the Israeli occupation forces continue to bombard the south relentlessly, anxiety has spread in Beirut with displaced people from the south arriving in the capital. Some of the city’s residents have started to leave.
In August 2024, a short Hezbollah video — “Our Mountains Are Our Storehouses” — showed what appeared to be tunnels large enough to accommodate truck convoys. Some trucks appear to be transporting missiles and launchers through one of the tunnels, which has been identified as “Imad 4”, a reference to military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car bombing in Damascus in 2008.
Israel has been aware of these underground facilities “for some time” and now has experience dealing with Hamas tunnels in Gaza. This is believed to be the challenge that Israel will face if it invades Lebanon in its totality.
Despite Hezbollah’s tunnel network, Lebanon lacks enough shelters and safe spaces for civilians. The problem is not limited to the absence of places which provide some degree of protection against bombs. Rather, it goes beyond that to the absence of plans and visions to confront multiple disasters. While some Lebanese mocked the Israelis who headed for the shelters when the sirens sounded to be safe from Hezbollah’s rockets, the people of Lebanon are vulnerable to homelessness due to the lack of an organised shelter plan.
Hezbollah had to decide between building tunnels and constructing more shelters to protect the residents of the south from Israeli bombs. With the Lebanese living in fear of the war waged by Israel, we recall the massacres that have been part of every act of aggression against their country.
It would have been better for the movement to build shelters to protect civilians, especially in the south of Lebanon, and keep them on their land instead of displacing them to Beirut, the mountains and other areas. Israeli settlements have shelters, which gives some reassurance and sense of security to the residents.
In Lebanon, there are no sirens and few shelters when artillery shells and bombs are incoming. Hezbollah has always relied on internal displacement as a means of protecting civilians, because the wars on Lebanon generally do not target the whole country. Israel usually avoids bombing Christian areas because it does not want to anger Europe, and aims to sow religious discord in Lebanese society.
In anticipation of what will happen next, Israel is opening new shelters that cost millions of dollars to build. The Lebanese, however, do not know where to go or what to do in the event of an extension of Israeli air strikes.
Why did Hezbollah not prepare for these wars despite being at the heart of the conflict with the occupation state? Can the Lebanese infrastructure withstand the pressure resulting from intensive bombing campaigns? The party should have built more shelters for civilians, instead of just tunnels that only meet their military requirements; and it should have stopped using some of the few shelters that exist to store weapons and ammunition instead of being made available to civilians.
As soon as Hezbollah entered the war with Israel by firing rockets across the border in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza on 8 October last year, thousands of families in southern Lebanon rushed to pack up their belongings and head north. As the Israeli occupation forces continue to bombard the south relentlessly, anxiety has spread in Beirut with displaced people from the south arriving in the capital. Some of the city’s residents have started to leave.
In August 2024, a short Hezbollah video — “Our Mountains Are Our Storehouses” — showed what appeared to be tunnels large enough to accommodate truck convoys. Some trucks appear to be transporting missiles and launchers through one of the tunnels, which has been identified as “Imad 4”, a reference to military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a car bombing in Damascus in 2008.
Israel has been aware of these underground facilities “for some time” and now has experience dealing with Hamas tunnels in Gaza. This is believed to be the challenge that Israel will face if it invades Lebanon in its totality.
Despite Hezbollah’s tunnel network, Lebanon lacks enough shelters and safe spaces for civilians. The problem is not limited to the absence of places which provide some degree of protection against bombs. Rather, it goes beyond that to the absence of plans and visions to confront multiple disasters. While some Lebanese mocked the Israelis who headed for the shelters when the sirens sounded to be safe from Hezbollah’s rockets, the people of Lebanon are vulnerable to homelessness due to the lack of an organised shelter plan.
Hezbollah had to decide between building tunnels and constructing more shelters to protect the residents of the south from Israeli bombs. With the Lebanese living in fear of the war waged by Israel, we recall the massacres that have been part of every act of aggression against their country.
It would have been better for the movement to build shelters to protect civilians, especially in the south of Lebanon, and keep them on their land instead of displacing them to Beirut, the mountains and other areas. Israeli settlements have shelters, which gives some reassurance and sense of security to the residents.
In Lebanon, there are no sirens and few shelters when artillery shells and bombs are incoming. Hezbollah has always relied on internal displacement as a means of protecting civilians, because the wars on Lebanon generally do not target the whole country. Israel usually avoids bombing Christian areas because it does not want to anger Europe, and aims to sow religious discord in Lebanese society.
In anticipation of what will happen next, Israel is opening new shelters that cost millions of dollars to build. The Lebanese, however, do not know where to go or what to do in the event of an extension of Israeli air strikes.
Why did Hezbollah not prepare for these wars despite being at the heart of the conflict with the occupation state? Can the Lebanese infrastructure withstand the pressure resulting from intensive bombing campaigns? The party should have built more shelters for civilians, instead of just tunnels that only meet their military requirements; and it should have stopped using some of the few shelters that exist to store weapons and ammunition instead of being made available to civilians.
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