Following Israel's crippling war on Lebanon, which ended in late 2024 with a supposed ceasefire agreement, a second round of hostilities looms large—signalled most recently by US envoy Tom Barrack and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Just a week after Israel carried out its infamous pager attack, which killed dozens and maimed thousands of Lebanese citizens on 17 September 2024, Israeli warplanes launched a sweeping assault across dozens of towns, stretching from the southern border to northern Bekaa and including Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Devastating toll
Official figures indicate 4,000 casualties during two months of unprecedented aerial and ground bombardment—surpassing even the devastation of the 1982 invasion—with unofficial estimates placing the death toll between 10,000 and 11,000, with many still missing and tens of thousands wounded. Over 5,000 Hezbollah fighters are believed to have been killed, including most of the group's top brass leadership.
Meanwhile, the cost of the destruction and damage is astronomical—running into the tens of billions of dollars—dashing any hopes of recovery from Lebanon's economic collapse that has been ongoing since 2019. Israel levelled entire villages and neighbourhoods, and thousands of residents cannot return to their homes due to the threat of being targeted by Israel or because basic services like electricity and water needed to sustain life have yet to be restored.
Israel has erased hospitals, schools, businesses and historic landmarks—and along with them, the aspirations of ordinary citizens who once dreamed of a better tomorrow.
