The latest war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has escalated quickly.
Israeli strikes hit multiple neighborhoods in central Beirut, bringing down a multistory apartment building on Wednesday on a main thoroughfare and blasting out walls in others. The bombardment came after Hezbollah launched a barrage of dozens of missiles into Israel the previous night.
In southern Lebanon, Israeli troops are massing in preparation for a potential major ground invasion, while combat is already underway in some border areas.
Attempts by Lebanese officials to enter into direct negotiations with Israel to halt the fighting have been unsuccessful. Neither Hezbollah nor Israel appears to have any immediate desire to stop the war.
Israel hopes that this round will finally enable it to defang the threat on its northern border. Hezbollah sees it as an existential struggle. Whatever the outcome, the war will have farther-reaching consequences in Lebanon and throughout the region.
Historical context of Israel-Hezbollah conflict Israel and Hezbollah have fought multiple wars since the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group was formed in the 1980s as a guerrilla force fighting against Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon at the time.
On March 2, two days after Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran, sparking the widening war in the Middle East, Hezbollah launched missiles toward Israel. It said that the
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