'You are Hezbollah’s hostages': Israel’s message to the Lebanese people

With the specter of war with Hezbollah looming large following last week's assassination of Fouad Shukur, Hezbollah's military commander, in Beirut's southern suburbs, Israel appears to be playing on the dissensions in Lebanon and the hostility expressed by some Lebanese to the conflict that broke out on Oct. 8, 2023.

On its “official” Arabic-language X account, @IsraelArabic, Israel addressed its “neighbors in Lebanon” directly on Thursday.

“You have become hostages in the hands of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that has caused destruction, panic and instability throughout Lebanon,” the post read. “Hezbollah is not only a threat to Israel, but also to the security of the Lebanese people,” the text added. With this cryptic sentence at the end: “The time has come to talk.”

Also on Thursday, the Israeli army's Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, posted on his X account (formerly Twitter) snapshots of tweets from Lebanese people against Hezbollah's war in the south, with the sentence: "In short, the Lebanese people do not want the war and the adventures of [Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan] Nasrallah and the party of Iran in Lebanon."

Daily clashes have been pitting Hezbollah against Israel in southern Lebanon and Galilee since Oct. 8, 2023, following the war that broke out in Gaza after Operation al-Aqsa Flood, led by the Islamist movement Hamas in Israeli territory. The conflict, which had remained limited to "the usual rules of the game" until then, took a dangerous turn following two assassinations attributed to the Israelis last week, those of Shukur in the southern suburbs, and of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, in the heart of Tehran. Since then, Hezbollah and Iran have promised a muscular response against Israel.

This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.