As hostilities escalated on Sunday in a more than 10-month-long cross-border conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement, here’s a look at major bursts of violence since the 2006 war.
A devastating month-long war in the summer of 2006 claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, while about 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers, were killed.
Sporadic attacks occurred in the following years, increasing after an attack on Israel by Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally Hamas on 7 October.
2007–2013: Rocket attack and invasion
On 17 June 2007 two rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, hitting the industrial area of the border town of Kiryat Shmona but causing no casualties. Hezbollah denied responsibility.
In early August 2010, an attempt by Israeli troops to uproot trees in the disputed border region of Adeseh sparked a deadly border battle, killing a senior Israeli officer as well as two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist.
On 7 August 2013, four Israeli soldiers on patrol were injured in an explosion carried out by Hezbollah 400 meters inside Lebanese territory.
2014–2015: Israeli attacks
On 26 February 2014, Hezbollah said Israeli warplanes launched an air strike on one of its bases on Lebanon’s Syrian border.
On October 7, Israel attacked two Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. The attack was in response to a bomb attack against Israeli troops along the ceasefire line between the two countries in the Shebaa Hills, in which two soldiers were injured.
On 28 January 2015, two Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah attack in the Shebaa Hills.
The attack is in retaliation for an Israeli assault 10 days ago on the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights that killed at least six Hezbollah members and an Iranian general.
In retaliation, Israeli tanks and artillery bombarded several villages in southern Lebanon.
2019: Drone and missile strikes
On August 25, 2019, two explosive-laden drones attacked southern Beirut suburbs, causing material damage, according to Hezbollah, which blamed Israel for the attack.
A day earlier, two Hezbollah members were killed in an Israeli air strike in Syria.
On September 1, a missile attack occurred along the border between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.
2021: Escalation in clashes
On 4 August 2021, three rockets were fired from Lebanon, two of which fell in Israel. The Israeli military responded with airstrikes on southern Lebanon.
On August 6, Hezbollah fired more than 10 rockets at Israel, to which Israel responded with artillery.
2023-2024: Situation after 7 October attacks
Hezbollah has exchanged almost daily cross-border fire with Israel since Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.
A Reuters video journalist was killed and six other journalists from AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera were injured in an Israeli tank attack in southern Lebanon on 13 October.
On 2 January 2024, Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri was assassinated in an attack in the southern suburbs of Beirut that was blamed on Israel.
On 26 February Israel attacked Hezbollah positions in the Bekaa Valley, the first attack in eastern Lebanon since fighting began in October.
July, August 2024: Hezbollah, Fatah chiefs killed
On 27 July 12 children aged 10–16 were killed in a rocket attack on Majdal Shams, a Druze Arab town in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israel has blamed Hezbollah for the attack, which has denied the claim.
Israeli forces responded by attacking Beirut’s southern suburbs on 30 July, killing Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s top commander in the south.
On August 21, Israeli forces killed Khalil Makdah, whom the Palestinian Fatah movement described as “one of the leaders” of its armed wing in Lebanon.
August 2024: Hostility will escalate
On August 25, Hezbollah said it had attacked Israel with hundreds of rockets and drones in response to Shukr’s killing. It said its campaign was “completed and successful”.
But Israel says it has repelled the attack, and launched air strikes in Lebanon which the military says destroyed “thousands” of Hezbollah rocket launchers.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
