Lebanon has emerged as a bleak additional front in the war the United States and Israel launched against Iran a week and a half ago, with the nation facing ongoing Israeli attacks and most signs suggesting the country will plummet into further misery, as the U.S.-backed Israeli operation there looks unlikely to end soon.
The deepening conflict began when the Lebanon-based military and political group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, targeted Israel last week in stated retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli assault on its patron. Israel has responded with a broader campaign that was prepared over months, with a professed goal of controlling more Lebanese territory and discussions of a ground invasion.
Humanitarian and human rights groups say roughly 700,000 people in Lebanon have already fled their homes, while Israeli attacks have killed civilians — including more than 10 children per day since March 2, according to UNICEF — and apparently violated international law. Israeli officials have ordered civilians to flee densely populated regions, suggesting they will be treated as war zones with little regard for those who remain. Bombing in the capital, Beirut, and at targets connected to the country’s Christian community, which is not linked to Hezbollah, has left many Lebanese fearing mass devastation resembling the destruction meted out in Gaza by the American-backed Israeli campaign there.
