Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, which have played out over decades in two major wars and shadow wars in between, escalated after the conflict erupted in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. Hezbollah’s bombardments started with sporadic rocket and mortar fire but gradually increased in scale and frequency. By November 2023, Hezbollah was launching dozens of coordinated barrages of dozens at a time. “You expand, we expand. You escalate, we escalate,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Feb. 13, 2024.
In the first six months of war, Hezbollah carried out more than 4,000 attacks, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Israel's military reported that some 3,100 rockets crossed into Israeli territory. Hezbollah primarily targeted Israeli military bases and towns along the border as well as civilian communities in the Galilee. More than 80,000 civilians from 43 communities fled northern Israel.
Hezbollah and its Iranian backers initially both sought to avoid a full-scale war with Israel, according to U.S. intelligence. On March 5, 2024, Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary general of Hezbollah, said there was only a 10 percent chance that the fighting will evolve into all-out war. During the first six months, Hezbollah refrained from using its rockets with a range of 45 to 100 kilometers (or 28 to 62 miles). It used none of its longer-range ballistic missiles, such as the Fateh-110 with a range of 250 to 300 kilometers (or 155 to 185 miles) capable of striking central Israel.
The Shiite militia—fostered, armed, trained and funded by Iran—vowed to continue until the Gaza war ended. “The war in the south is linked to the aggression on Gaza on the one hand, and to securing means of protection for our country on the other,” said Hassan Fadlallah, a senior Hezbollah politician. “When the [Israeli] occupation halts its aggression on Gaza, this front stops, because it is a supportive front.”
During the first six months of war, Israeli airstrikes as well as artillery and tank attacks hit more than 4,500 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and Syria. Israel sought to degrade Hezbollah’s military capabilities and push its fighters away from the border. Israel's military said that it eliminated more than 330 terrorists, including 30 commanders, in Lebanon and Syria. As of March 2024, some 90,000 people were displaced from southern Lebanon.
Israel pledged to continue its military campaign against Hezbollah until the Lebanese militia withdrew its forces from the border region and ended attacks on Israeli targets. The Israeli had seriously damaged Hezbollah’s fighting capabilities and killed several commanders, Maj. Gen. Uri Gordon, the Northern Command Chief said in early March 2024.
During the first six months of war, Hezbollah attacks killed nine Israeli civilians and 11 soldiers. The Israeli attacks reportedly killed nearly 40 Lebanese civilians, 240 Hezbollah fighters and several key Iranian military officers.
The following are major attacks by Hezbollah on Israel as well as Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and Syria.
2023
Oct. 8, 2023: In solidarity with Hamas, Hezbollah launched a new offensive on Israel, including rockets and artillery, on three Israeli posts in Shebaa Farms, the disputed border site.
Israel fired artillery on Hezbollah military positions in southern Lebanon.
Oct. 12, 2023: Israel struck the Damascus and Aleppo airports.
Oct. 14, 2023: An Israeli airstrike took the Damascus airport temporarily out of service.
Oct. 22, 2023: Israeli airstrikes simultaneously hit the Damascus and Aleppo airports, damaging the runways.
Oct. 25, 2023: After rockets were fired from Syria into the Golan Heights, Israeli fighters targeted the Aleppo airport and several military sites.
Nov. 5, 2023: An Israeli airstrike hit a car in southern Lebanon suspected of transporting terrorists.
Nov. 8, 2023: U.S. F-15 fighters struck a weapons facility used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and its local allies in eastern Deir Ezzor; nine affiliated with Iran-backed militias were reportedly killed. Israel separately struck military sites used by Hezbollah in southern Syria.
Nov. 9, 2023: A drone launched from Syria hit a school in Eilat. Israeli airstrikes reportedly killed seven Hezbollah fighters in Syria.
Nov. 12, 2023: Hezbollah launched 15 strikes—with mortars and rockets-- on Israel’s northern Manara region, wounding seven Israeli soldiers and 10 civilians. It also fired an anti-tank missile at northern Dovev, wounding six utility workers. Israel countered with artillery and airstrikes on Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon.
Nov. 17, 2023: Israeli airstrikes reportedly hit a Hezbollah arms depot and other sites near Damascus.
Nov. 23, 2023: Hezbollah fired more than 80 anti-tank guided missiles or mortar barrages at the headquarters of Israel’s northern command in Safed. Israel countered with airstrikes and mortar barrages on Hezbollah’s rocket launchers and infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
Nov. 26, 2023: Israel struck the Damascus airport runway.
Dec. 1, 2023: Israel shelled two sites in southern Lebanon, killing three people, including a Hezbollah fighter.
Dec. 2, 2023: An Israeli airstrike killed two Revolutionary Guards fighters near Damascus.
Dec. 8, 2023: An Israeli airstrike killed the son of a senior Hezbollah commander in southern Syria and four others.
Dec. 10, 2023: Israel hit two Hezbollah sites in a suburb of Damascus, killing two Hezbollah fighters.
Dec. 25, 2023: An Israeli airstrike killed General Razi Mousavi, the longstanding Revolutionary Guards coordinator between Tehran and Damascus.
Dec. 30, 2023: Four Hezbollah fighters were killed in an airstrike near the Abu Kamal crossing between Syria and Iraq that has long been a key hub for smuggling weapons originating in Iran.
2024
Jan. 8, 2024: Israeli airstrikes killed Wissam Hassan al Tawil, a senior commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit.
Jan. 9, 2024: An Israeli airstrike killed three Hezbollah fighters in their vehicle in southern Ghandourah. Hezbollah launched a drone strike on northern Safed, headquarters of Israel’s northern command. It also fired on Malkia and Yiftah.
Israel retaliated with attacks on Hezbollah drone launch sites in southern Lebanon as well as military equipment near Kafr Kila. One airstrike killed Ali Hussein Burji, the leader of Hezbollah’s aerial unit in southern Lebanon.
Jan. 20, 2024: An Israeli airstrike on Damascus killed General Sadegh Omidzadeh, the Revolutionary Guards intelligence chief based in Syria, his deputy, and at least two others.
Jan. 25, 2024: Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile at Israel’s main radar station in northern Mount Meron. Israel struck a runway in southern Lebanon allegedly used by Hezbollah to launch drones and a helicopter pad.
Feb. 1, 2024: An Israeli airstrike reportedly killed Saeed Alidadi, a Revolutionary Guard advisor in southern Damascus.
Feb. 6, 2024: Israeli missiles targeted Shuyrat and others sites near Homs, killing two Hezbollah fighters and others.
Feb. 15, 2024: Israeli airstrikes hit Nabatieh and As Swana in southern Lebanon, killing three Hezbollah fighters and 10 civilians.
Feb. 25, 2024: An Israeli airstrike killed two Hezbollah fighters traveling on a truck in Qusayr in western Syria.
Feb. 26, 2024: Israel hit Hezbollah air defenses in the Bekaa Valley, killing two Hezbollah fighters, in its deepest strike into Lebanon. Hezbollah fired more than 60 rockets on the Golan Heights.
March 11, 2024: Israeli fighter jets struck a Hezbollah base housing drones and long-range rockets in eastern Baalbek, killing at least one Hezbollah fighter.
March 12: 2024: Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets at the Galilee and Golan Heights. Israeli airstrikes attacked Hezbollah sites in southern and eastern Lebanon, including two command posts in Baalbek.
March 24, 2024: Hezbollah fired more than 50 Katyusha rockets at military sites in northern Israel.
March 27, 2024: Israel carried out a series of airstrikes in southern Lebanon. The targets included a Hezbollah military compound in Teir Harfa and a terrorist cill in Naqoura. A total of 16 people were killed, including two Hezbollah fighters and an officer in the Islamic Group, a Sunni militia aligned with Hezbollah and Hamas. In response, Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at northern Kiryat Shmona, killing one. Israel responded with further strikes.
March 28, 2024: Israeli airstrikes struck several areas in Syria’s northern Aleppo province, killing more than 40 people, mostly Syrian soldiers as well as six Hezbollah fighters.
March 29, 2024: An Israeli airstrike on southern Bazourieh in Lebanon killed Ali Abed Akhsan Naim, the deputy commander of Hezbollah’s rocket and missiles unit.
April 1: An Israeli airstrike on an Iranian consulate building in Damascus, killed General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the leading Revolutionary Guard commander for covert operations in Syria and Lebanon, and six others, including Zahedi’s deputy. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian condemned the bombing as a “violation of all international obligations and conventions.”