BEIRUT (AP) – Since Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon, Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have clashed along the border, while the Lebanese army has largely stood by.
This is not the first time the military has watched a domestic war from the uncomfortable position of a bystander.
Lebanon’s much-loved army is one of the few institutions that bridges the country’s sectarian and political divides. Several military commanders have been sworn in as president, and the current commander, General Joseph Aoun, is considered one of the frontrunners to step in when the deadlocked parliament nominate a president to fill a two-year gap. widely regarded.
But with an aging arsenal and a lack of air defense equipment, as well as a five-year economic crisis, the military is ill-prepared to defend Lebanon from airstrikes and ground attacks from modern, well-equipped militaries like Israel’s. do not have.
FILE – Flames and smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussain, File)
The military is militarily in the shadow of Hezbollah. The Lebanese Army has about 80,000 troops, of which about 5,000 are deployed in the south. Hezbollah has more than 100,000 fighters, according to the extremist group’s late leader Hassan Nasrallah. Weapons built with Iranian support are also more advanced.
Careful initial responseIsraeli forces and Hezbollah fighters have been clashing since October 8, 2023, when the Lebanese militant group began firing rockets across the border in support of its ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has carried out large-scale airstrikes and ground incursions into Lebanon in recent weeks, saying the aim is to push Hezbollah back from the border and allow the return of displaced people in northern Israel.
After Israeli forces crossed the border for the first time and Hezbollah responded with rockets, Lebanese soldiers withdrew from observation posts along the border and redeployed about 5 kilometers (3 miles) to the rear.
FILE – A man uses a mobile phone amid flames and smoke at the scene of an Israeli airstrike on a building in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussain, File)
So far, Israeli forces have not advanced that far. Direct clashes between the two countries occurred on October 3, when Israeli tank fire hit a Lebanese army position in the Bint Jubeir area, killing one soldier, and on Friday, an airstrike in the area killed two soldiers. only died. area. The Lebanese army said it returned artillery fire on both occasions.
The Lebanese army declined to comment on how it would react if Israeli ground forces advance further.
Analysts familiar with military movements said the Lebanese army would put up resistance if an Israeli invasion reached current military positions, but it would be limited.
Former Lebanese Army General Hassan Juni said the military’s “natural and automatic mission is to protect Lebanon from any army that invades Lebanese territory.” “Of course, if Israel’s enemies were to invade, we would defend ourselves, but within the limits of our available capabilities…we would not go so far as to be reckless or suicidal.”
FILE – Rescue workers search for victims at the scene of Thursday’s Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)
Israeli and Lebanese forces are ‘completely evenly matched’
Israel’s current invasion of Lebanon is the fourth invasion of the neighboring country in the past 50 years. In most previous invasions, the Lebanese army similarly played a peripheral role.
The only exception was in 1972, when Israel created a 20-kilometer (12-mile) buffer zone to push back Palestine Liberation Organization fighters, said Aram Nergizian, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. I tried to make it. .
FILE – Lebanese army soldiers stand guard in front of a car hit by an Israeli attack as workers cover it with a truck in the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed) Zaatari, File)
Nergizian said at the time that the Lebanese army succeeded in slowing Israel’s advance, “buying time for political leaders in Beirut to seek international intervention to pressure Israel for a ceasefire.”
However, with the outbreak of a 15-year civil war in 1975 and the occupation of parts of Lebanon by Israeli and Syrian forces, Lebanon’s internal situation and military capabilities deteriorated.
Hezbollah was the only force allowed to keep arms after the civil war, with the stated goal of resisting Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, which ended in 2000.
By 2006, when Hezbollah and Israel fought a brutal month-long war, the Lebanese army was “unable to invest in real-world postwar modernization and without the ability to interdict Israeli air power.” “I was left completely vulnerable.” Nergizian said. “There have been several military engagements between the (Lebanese Army) and the Israeli army, but they have been completely overwhelmed.”
FILE – Lebanese army soldiers stand guard in front of a car hit by an Israeli attack as workers cover it with a truck in the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed) Zaatari, File)
International aid brought a variety of benefits.
After the outbreak of civil war in neighboring Syria in 2011 and the rise of the Islamic State group, the Lebanese army saw a new influx of military aid. In 2017, it successfully fought IS on the Lebanese border, but not alone. Hezbollah was simultaneously attacking the group on the other side of the border.
When Lebanon’s financial system and currency collapsed in 2019, the military suffered a blow. There was no budget to purchase weapons and maintain existing supplies, vehicles, and aircraft. The average soldier’s salary now equated to about $220 a month, and many relied on second jobs. At one point, the United States and Qatar both provided monthly subsidies to soldiers’ salaries.
The United States was the main funder of the Lebanese army before the crisis. According to the State Department, it has provided approximately $3 billion in military aid since 2006, with the goal of “helping the Lebanese Army serve as a stabilizing force against regional threats” and “strengthening Lebanon’s sovereignty and securing its borders.” “to do so,” he said in a statement. , countering internal threats and disrupting the promotion of terrorism. ”
President Joe Biden’s administration has also touted the Lebanese army as a key part of a diplomatic solution to the current war, hoping the troop surge will displace Hezbollah in border areas.
However, that support has limits. Aid to the Lebanese army has also been politically controversial in the United States, with some lawmakers saying it could end up in the hands of Hezbollah, although there is no evidence that it actually happened.
FILE – Lebanese officers parade during a graduation ceremony to commemorate the 74th Armed Forces Day at their barracks in Fayadiyeh, a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
FILE – Lebanese army soldiers patrol the Lebanese side of the Lebanon-Israel border in the southern village of Kfar Qira, Lebanon, October 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussain, File)
In Lebanon, the military will acquire more sophisticated weapons that could potentially defend it against Israel, America’s strongest ally in the region and a recipient of at least $17.9 billion in U.S. military aid in the year since the end of the war. Many believe that the United States prevented this from happening. It started in Gaza.
Walid Aoun, a retired Lebanese army general and military analyst, said: “My personal opinion is that the United States does not allow the (Lebanese) army to have sophisticated air defense equipment, and this issue is not an issue for Israel. It is related to,” he said.
Nergizian said this perception is “not a conspiracy or a half-truth” and that the US has enacted legal requirements that uphold Israel’s qualitative military superiority over all other militaries in the region. He pointed out that.
FILE – Lebanese army soldiers deploy on the Lebanese side of the Lebanon-Israel border in the village of Kfar Kira in southern Lebanon, Saturday, May 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Hussein Mara, File)
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Associated Press writer Matt Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
