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.
Israel and Hezbollah carried out a combined total of 7,491 cross-border attacks between Oct. 8, 2023 and July 5, 2024, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). Hezbollah was responsible for more than 1,200 strikes. By late July 2024, Hezbollah had launched more than 6,000 rockets and 300 drones at Israel, killing 24 civilians and 22 Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah primarily targeted Israeli military bases and towns along the border as well as civilian communities in the Galilee. More than 60,000 civilian residents of northern Israel evacuated, and at least 1,500 buildings and other structures were badly damaged.
Israel sought to degrade Hezbollah’s military capabilities and push its fighters away from the border. 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. As of July 2024, the Israeli attacks had reportedly killed nearly 100 Lebanese civilians and more than 380 Hezbollah fighters, including 30 commanders, in Lebanon and Syria. “Continuing to target civilians will push the Resistance to launch missiles at settlements that were not previously targeted,” Nasrallah warned in a televised address on July 17.
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 nine months of the conflict, Hezbollah largely used short-range rockets that were cheap to produce or sourced from Iran. And it used none of its precision-guided 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. But, as the conflict dragged on, Qassem acknowledged that the conflict could escalate. “We are actually not confident that we can limit the war,” he stated in a June 2024 interview.
Kamal Kharazzi, an advisor to Iran's supreme leader, emphasized that Iran was "not interested" in a regional war. But Tehran and the "Axis of Resistance" — a network of pro-Iran militias across the Middle East including Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and several Iraqi militias — would support Hezbollah by "all means" if a full-scale war with Israel broke out, he warned in a July 2024 interview.
Tensions with Israel escalated on July 30, when an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, who served on Hezbollah’s Jihad Council and was a close advisor to leader Hassan Nasrallah, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Lebanese capital. Israel blamed Shukr for an attack on Majdal Shams—a Druze town in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights--that killed 12 children and teenagers on July 27.
Hezbollah waited for nearly a month before retaliating. On August 25, it prepared to launch a major attack on Israel. Some 100 Israeli warplanes preemptively hit thousands of rockets and launchers. But Hezbollah managed to launch 230 rockets and at least 20 drones at Israel. The brief flare-up did not trigger a war. In a televised speech, Nasrallah claimed the operation was a success and had concluded. “At this current stage, the country [Lebanon] can take a breath and relax.”
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.”
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 following are major attacks by Hezbollah on Israel as well as Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and Syria. 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.”
April 8, 2024: An Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon killed Ali Ahmad Hassin of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force as well as two other individuals.
April 13, 2024: Hezbollah launched 40 rockets at the Upper Galilee and Golan Heights areas, one of the biggest barrages since October 30. Hezbollah claimed to have targeted Israeli artillery positions.
April 15, 2024: Hezbollah detonated explosives that injured four Israeli soldiers who had allegedly crossed into Lebanese territory near the Tel Ismail area.
April 17, 2024: Hezbollah launched a drone and missile attack on northern Israel near Arab al Aramshe, injuring 14 Israeli soldiers.
April 23, 2024: An Israeli overnight strike in southern Lebanon killed Muhammad Attiya, a member of Hezbollah’s Radwan force involved in planning attacks against Israel. A separate Israeli airstrike killed two Hezbollah operatives, including aerial defense engineer Hussein Azkoul, in Aadloun, near the coastal city of Tyre in southern Lebanon.
April 23, 2024: Hezbollah attacked two Israeli military bases between Acre and Nahariya using decoy and explosive drones. It was one of the deepest attacks into Israeli territory to date.
April 26, 2024: A Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack killed an Israeli civilian in the northern village of Salama. In response, Israel struck a car in eastern Lebanon, killing two.
May 5, 2024: An Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese border village of Meiss al Jabal killed four civilians. In response, Hezbollah claimed to launch “tens” of Katyusha rockets at Kiryat Shmona, town in northern Israel.
May 6, 2024: A Hezbollah drone attack on the town of Metula in northern Israel killed two Israeli soldiers.
May 14, 2024: Hezbollah launched an anti-tank guided missile attack on the northern community of Adamit, killing one Israeli civilian and injuring five soldiers.
June 8, 2024: An Israeli airstrike outside the town of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon killed at least two people.
June 12, 2024: Israel killed three Hezbollah operatives, including senior commander Taleb Abdullah, in an airstrike in the town of Jouaiyya. In response, Hezbollah fired more than 250 rockets at Israel, the largest single- day attack since October 2023.
June 13, 2024: Hezbollah attacked nine Israeli military sites with over 100 rockets and 30 attack drones, wounding two people.
June 20, 2024: Israel killed Hezbollah field commander Abbas Ibrahim Hamza Hamada in an attack on the town of Deir Kifa southern Lebanon. Hamada was reportedly instrumental in planning and carrying out attacks against Israel. In response, Hezbollah fired some 45 rockets at an Israeli military base near Zar’it.
June 27, 2024: An Israeli airstrike on the city of Nabatiyeh and village of Sohmor killed four Hezbollah operatives. A strike on Nabatiyeh earlier that day injured 20. Hezbollah launched some 35 rockets toward at northern Israel in response.
June 30, 2024: Hezbollah launched a drone attack on the Golan Heights, injuring 18 Israeli soldiers. Israel hit targets in southern Lebanon in response.
July 3, 2024: An Israeli airstrike near the city of Tyre killed Mohammad Naameh Nasser, the head of Hezbollah’s Aziz unit. In response, Hezbollah claimed to fire more than 100 Katyusha rockets as well as an unspecified number of heavier Falaq rockets at two Israeli positions in the Golan Heights.
July 9, 2024: An Israeli drone strike on a car in Syria near the Lebanese border killed Yasser Nemr Qranbish, a former bodyguard of Nasrallah. Qranbish had reportedly been involved in weapons shipments. In response, Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets to the Golan Heights, killing two Israeli civilians.
July 11, 2024: Hezbollah launched several drones carrying explosives on Kibbutz Kabri in the Western Galilee. Air defenses downed some of the weapons, but the impact of one killed an Israeli reservist soldier.
July 19, 2024: An Israeli strike on a house in southern Lebanon killed three people, including two Hezbollah operatives. Ali Jaafar Maatouq, a commander of the Radwan unit was reportedly eliminated.
July 21, 2024: Israel struck two Hezbollah weapons depots in southern Lebanon containing rockets and other weaponry.
July 22, 2024: Hezbollah launched several drones and 30 rockets at the Golan Heights area. A drone carrying explosives injured two Israeli soldiers.
July 24, 2024: Hezbollah attacked the Mount Dov area of Israel with rocket fire, seriously injuring an Israeli soldier. Hezbollah also launched rockets at Kiryat Shmona as well as the Galilee Panhandle.
July 25, 2024: An Israeli airstrike in the Rab El Thalathine area in southern Lebanon killed a Hezbollah operative.
July 27, 2024: Israel’s air force struck a Hezbollah arms depot in the village of Kfar Kila near the border while fighters were inside. Hezbollah acknowledged the death of three fighters but did not disclose where they were killed. Hezbollah claimed 10 rocket and drone attacks on Israeli military targets, including the Haramoun Brigade in the Golan Heights.
A rocket struck a soccer field and killed 12 children and teens in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. In a rare move, Hezbollah denied involvement. But Israel published evidence indicating that Hezbollah had launched the Falaq-1 rocket, an Iran-supplied weapon, that hit the village. U.S. intelligence concurred with Israel’s findings. It was one of the deadliest attacks on Israel since Oct. 7, 2023. The Druze are an Arabic-speaking minority spread across Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Jordan that follow a monotheistic faith related to the major Abrahamic religions. Most of the approximately 25,000 Druze in the Golan Heights have declined Israeli citizenship and have continued to identify as Syrian since Israel took the territory in the 1967 war.
July 28, 2024: Israel retaliated for the alleged attack on Majdal Shams with overnight strikes on seven targets, mostly near the border and the Lebanese port of Tyre. One strike hit the Bekaa Valley, some 60 miles north of the border.
July 29, 2024: Israeli airstrikes killed two people in southern Lebanon.
July 30, 2024: Israel killed Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah military commander, in an airstrike on a residential building in Haret Hreik, a southern suburb of Beirut and a Hezbollah stronghold. Shukr served on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s highest military body. He had played a central role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut. Israel alleged that he was responsible for the rocket attack on the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on July 27 that killed 12 children and teenagers.
July 30, 2024: Hezbollah launched some 10 Grad rockets into northern Israel. One killed an Israeli civilian in Kibbutz Hagoshrim.
Aug. 3, 2024: Israel killed Ali Nazi Abd Ali, a senior Southern Front operative, in the area of Wadi Jilou in southern Lebanon.
Aug. 4, 2024: Hezbollah launched some 30 Grad or Katyusha rockets that killed cows and damaged property belonging to Moshav Beit Hillel in northern Israel.
Aug. 5, 2024: Hezbollah launched several suicide drones that wounded two soldiers in the Ayaleter Hashachar area.
Aug. 5, 2024: Israel killed Ali Jamal al Din Jawad, a Radwan unit commander, in a drone strike in the village of Aabba in southern Lebanon.
Aug. 6, 2024: Israel killed Amin Badreddine, the nephew of the late Hezbollah military commander Mustafa Badreddine, and four other Hezbollah fighters were killed in an airstrike on the town of Maifadoun in southern Lebanon. His rank was not publicized.
Aug. 7, 2024: Israel killed Hassan Fares Jeshe, the commander of Hezbollah’s anti-tank missile array, in a drone strike in the village of Jouaiyya in southern Lebanon.
Aug. 13, 2024: Israel killed Ibrahim Jamil al Ashi and Fadi Muhammad Shihab, Hezbollah Southern Front field commanders, in a strike on a car in the town of Baraachit in southern Lebanon.
Aug. 17, 2024: Israel killed Hussein Ibrahim Kasab, a Radwan unit commander, while riding a motorcycle near Tyre, a coastal city in southern Lebanon.
Aug. 17, 2024: Israel launched a strike on a Hezbollah weapons depot near Wadi al Kfour in southern Lebanon. At least 10 Syrian nationals, including a woman and her two children, were killed, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health.
Aug. 17, 2024: Hezbollah fired some 55 rockets at Kibbutz Ayelet Hashachar in northern Israel. The impacts sparked fires in 10 places in the Upper Galilee.
Aug. 19, 2024: Israel struck Hezbollah weapon storage facilities in the Bekaa Valley.
Aug. 20, 2024: Israel bombed Hezbollah weapons depots in the Bekaa Valley.
Aug. 25, 2024: Israel struck thousands of rockets and rocket launchers in strikes on 270 targets across southern Lebanon. Some 100 warplanes participated in the preemptive strike. Hezbollah “managed to launch only about two hundred and thirty rockets and over twenty unmanned aerial vehicles,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said. “Most of them either fell on their way to Israeli territory, landed in open areas, or were intercepted by Israeli Air Force defense systems and Israeli Navy ships.” At least three people in Lebanon and one Israeli soldier were killed in the exchange.
In a speech, Nasrallah said that the attack was a delayed response to Israel’s assassination of Fuad Shukr in July. He claimed that Israel was downplaying its losses and that the Israeli airstrikes had only damaged “dozens” of rocket launchers after Hezbollah had attacked. Nasrallah signaled that Hezbollah’s retaliation was over. “At this current stage, the country [Lebanon] can take a breath and relax.”
Sept. 17, 2024: Israel allegedly triggered explosions on thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah fighters and followers. Devices detonated in Beirut, the eastern Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon as well as in neighboring Syria. The pager attack:
- Injured almost 3,000 Lebanese
- Killed at least 12, including two children
- Injured Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, who reportedly lost one eye and injured the other
- Overwhelmed Lebanese hospitals
Sept. 18, 2024: Israel allegedly triggered explosions on hundreds of walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah fighters and followers. The attack targeted Hezbollah in at least three strongholds—Beirut, the eastern Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon. The walkie-talkie operation:
- Injured at least 608
- Killed at least 25
- Sparked fires in Beirut’s southern suburbs as well as the Bekaa Valley
- Added to stress on Lebanese health facilities
Sept. 20, 2024: Israel killed Ibrahim Aqil, the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit and a member of the Jihad Council, and about 15 other commanders in an airstrike on a building in Beirut. Aqil was linked to two bombings in 1983 that killed 63 people at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and 241 U.S. personnel at the U.S. Marine barracks. The United States sanctioned Aqil in 2015 and designated him a “specially designated global terrorist” in 2019. The State Department had offered a reward of up to $7 million for information on him.
Sept. 21, 2024: Hezbollah launched more than 140 rockets and drones at the Jezreel Valley and Haifa. Most rockets were intercepted, but several hit civilian buildings in Kiryat Bialik, a Haifa suburb. Hezbollah claimed to have targeted a Rafael defense firm facility in Haifa and the Ramat David Airbase. The rockets penetrated some 30 miles into Israel, the deepest Hezbollah strikes since the 2006 war. Hezbollah said that the attacks were a response to the pager explosions on September 17.
Sept. 23, 2024: Israel launched airstrikes on more than 300 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa valley, killing nearly 500 people. The primary targets were rocket launchers and Hezbollah weaponry hidden in residential buildings. An IDF spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, warned residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate: “The raids will begin soon. Evacuate the houses where #Hezbollah has hidden weapons immediately.” Shortly after, Hezbollah targeted northern Israel with at least 35 drones and rockets.
Sept. 23, 2024: Hezbollah launched long-range rockets for the first time during the war, targeting the West Bank. The rockets landed in open areas around the Palestinian town of Deir Istiya.
Sept. 24, 2024: Israel killed Ibrahim Qubaisi, a senior Hezbollah commander and head of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket network, and five others in an airstrike on southern Beirut.
Sept. 25, 2024: Hezbollah launched a surface-to-surface ballistic missile at Tel Aviv, the first Hezbollah projectile to reach central Israel since the beginning of the war. The missile was intercepted and caused no damage. According to Hezbollah, the intended target was the headquarters of Mossad in retaliation for recent pager explosions. In response, Israel carried out strikes in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley.
Sept. 25, 2024: Hezbollah launched 30 rockets at the Western Galilee and suburbs of Haifa, wounding two people.