Israeli attacks on Lebanon affect student’s family

by Isabela Placencia

This article was written in November 2024. Details and circumstances continue to develop.

Tensions and military attacks in the Middle East have hit close to home for one RCU junior student, who was granted anonymity out of concern for his and his family’s well-being.

This student’s family is from Lebanon and his mother was in Lebanon visiting extended family when Israel launched airstrikes at the country in September. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the airstrikes were targeted at Hezbollah, not the people of Lebanon, yet the residents are facing extreme hardship.

According to the United Nations, as of October 2024, the death toll in Lebanon has risen to more than 2,200 people, and 809,000 civilians and peacekeepers have been displaced.

The student's mother was able to evacuate Lebanon, but he and his immediate family are terrified for their extended family who still live in Lebanon. The student said the latest airstrikes are “kinda like a domino.” Though his family was not harmed in the October attacks, the student said he fears the clashes will lead to more conflicts until they reach where his family lives. “If this domino falls, what will be the next attack and will it stop there?”

Map of Israel's airstrikes on Lebanon (CNN)

The student’s parents immigrated from Lebanon when they were young, and he said they “don’t want me to know that they’re scared.” He said his family is protective of one another and did not want the student to be named out of fear it would harm their reputation or well-being. The family’s concern goes back to the roots of the Lebanon-Israel conflict, which started with the formation of Israel in 1948.

Overview of the Palestine-Israel conflict & Lebanon’s involvement

Before 1948, Palestine was controlled by Britain until the United Nations intended to divide Palestine into two states — one for the Jewish population, Israel, and one for the Arab population. Instead, violence broke out due to disagreements over territories. This resulted in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, which displaced over 700,000 Palestinians and killed over 15,000 Palestinians, according to britannica.com. Many Arabs refer to this event as “Nakba,” which means “catastrophe” in Arabic.

In the aftermath of the war, Palestine lost 77% of its land and Israeli Defense Forces occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. More than 100,000 Palestinian refugees fled to southern Lebanon, where some formed the Palestine Liberation Organization, which exchanged fire with Israel along the border.

In 1982, Israel invaded southern Lebanon, and that is when Hezbollah was founded. Hezbollah opposes Israel’s treatment of Gaza, and its leaders say they will not stop attacking until Israel ceases its hostilities in Gaza. According to AP News, Hezbollah said it fired in solidarity with the Gaza Strip.

From 1987-1993, Palestinians rose up against Israel with different types of protests, some peaceful that eventually turned violent, according to CNN. This period is called the first intifada, which means “shaking off.”

In 1987, Hamas was formed to liberate occupied Palestinian territories through violence. After Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, Israel put a blockade on Gaza and strengthened its restrictions on Palestinian movement throughout the Israel and Palestine region.

A second intifada lasted from 2000-2005. During both intifadas, Palestinians took part in nonviolent resistance that sometimes turned violent in conflicts with Israeli security forces.

Oct. 7 Hamas attack

All of this historical conflict continued when Hamas, a Palestinian armed group and political movement in Gaza, launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages.

Israel launched a massive military offensive against Hamas in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack. It started with air strikes and was followed by a ground invasion of Gaza. As of August 2024, AP News reports that Israel’s retaliation have killed more than 40,000 Gazans.

The Israelis then launched “extensive strikes” targeting Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon, along the southern Lebanon border and northern Israel, according to the BBC.

Zionism & cultural tension

The RCU junior with Lebanese roots said, “I’m afraid Israel will do the same thing they did to Palestine. Some people believe that God gave them that land.”

This belief is known as Zionism, a 19th-century movement founded by Theodor Herzl who believed the Jewish people needed a homeland of their own. The Associated Press said Zionism “is based on the promise of God in the Book of Genesis that Israel would forever belong to Abraham and his descendants as a nation.”

Zack Beauchamp, a senior correspondent at Vox, wrote in an 2018 article that “Zionists believe Judaism is a nationality as well as a religion, and that Jews deserve their own state in their ancestral homeland, Israel, in the same way the French people deserve France or the Chinese people should have China.” He wrote that some Israelis use their Zionistic beliefs to justify settlements in Palestine.

Though often conflated, Zionism and Judaism are not the same thing. Zionism's perceived relationship with Judaism has led people to believe this is a religious conflict leading to anti-Zionists being labeled as antisemites. In reality, this is a clash between nationalities as Zionism designated Judaism as a nationality.

This designation disrupted the lives of Palestinian Jews, Muslims and Christians as it made them out-groups in the newly established Israeli society.

Antisemitic and anti-Islamic sentiments have risen in the wake of Oct. 7. The Anti-Defamation League recorded about 2,000 antisemitic incidents in America with the Council on American-Islamic Relations recording 2,171 incidents.

When asked about the cultural tensions, the student said, “I don’t want every Israeli to die. I just want the helpless bombings to stop.”

Aftermath of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut suburbs (Al Jazeera)

To learn more about the ongoing conflicts between Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, go to news.un.org.

If you want to help, visit the websites of the Palestine Red Crescent Society and Lebanon Humanitarian Fund to donate.