A man waves a Syrian revolution flag next to a Lebanese flag on the border between Lebanon and Syria on the day of the fall of the Assad regime, Dec. 8, 2024. Photo Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour
In 2024, certain words kept resurfacing like leitmotifs: "war," "Israeli strikes," "tensions," "response," "counter-response," and "unprecedented." The latter adjective was attached to numerous developments that disrupted Lebanon and the Middle East throughout the year.
Let's revisit these unprecedented events of the past year through a carefully selected, though not exhaustive, collection of 12 articles of the year's most impactful moments starting from the very first days of January.
On Jan. 2, an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, the first since 2006, answered the question that had been on everyone’s mind since Oct. 2023: “Will Israel strike the capital?”
Wasting no time, Israel launched its first targeted bombing of the year deep within Hezbollah’s stronghold, killing Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas’s third-in-command, along with several other key figures from the so-called “axis of resistance.” The very next day, our columnist Mounir Rabih analyzed the fallout.
A few tumultuous months later, a deadly strike on buildings linked to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, which was attributed to Israel, ignited a chain of regional upheavals.
After vowing to respond, Tehran eventually launched its retaliation on the night of Apr. 13–14, firing dozens of drones and rockets toward Israel. However, it took hours for the projectiles to reach their targets. Shortly afterward, Anthony Samrani analyzed the implications of this operation in the following article.
On Jul. 31, in the height of summer, Beirut’s southern suburbs were rocked once again. Israel carried out a strike that killed Fouad Chokor, a military leader of Hezbollah, in retaliation for a bombing raid – never claimed by Hezbollah — that had killed several children in Majdal Shams, a town in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Just hours later, another senior figure from the "axis of resistance," Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an explosion at a luxurious guesthouse in Tehran. This double assassination left the region bracing for a retaliation against Israel and prompted many expatriates, who had returned to Lebanon for the summer, to leave once again amid widespread flight suspensions.
At the time, Jeanine Jalkh analyzed Israel’s tactics of targeted assassinations and shed light on its modus operandi in Lebanon.
In the midst of this regional chaos, international justice did not stand idly by. The International Court of Justice issued a series of orders against Israel, demanding an end to its operations in Gaza.
Additionally, in April, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, sought arrest warrants for several figures, including Benjamin Netanyahu, then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as key Hamas leaders such as Mohammad Deif and Yahya Sinwar, the alleged architect of the Oct. 7 attacks, who was later killed. By November, these arrest warrants were officially issued.
At the time of the initial requests, Ambre Angliviel de La Beaumelle explored the consequences of the ICC decision.
As tensions surpassed what already seemed like breaking point and residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs fled in fear of further strikes, Israel began regularly issuing messages to the Lebanese public through military spokesmen or “influencers.”
These efforts appeared to be aimed at swaying public opinion, but there was more to it than that. Salah Hijazi explained the motives behind this operation, which oscillated between propaganda and seduction.
Another kind of bombshell shook Lebanon on Sept. 3 – the arrest of Riad Salameh, the former governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, following an investigation into allegations of him embezzling more than $40 million from the bank.
This near-unprecedented detention of a high-ranking official in a country often seen as a haven for impunity has sent shockwaves through financial and banking circles, as well as the political class with many fearing what the investigation might uncover about the central bank’s practices over the past decades. Our economics reporter Mounir Younes discussed the potential consequences of this “black box” revelation.
On Sept. 17, it wasn’t a single explosion, but thousands that shook Lebanon—and with it, the rest of the world. Pager devices held by Hezbollah operatives, were hacked by Mossad and subsequently detonated almost simultaneously across the country. The blasts caused widespread devastation, maiming hundreds of Hezbollah members and killing several people, including children.This operation, as deadly as it was surreal, remains a topic of intense discussion to this day.
The following day, Hezbollah’s walkie-talkies also exploded, marking the start of a violent chapter for Lebanon. In the wake of the Sept. 17 explosions, Sally Abou AlJoud gathered testimonies from first responders who treated the injured.
After the pagers and walkie-talkie blasts, events quickly escalated. Israel launched repeated strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, targeting and killing several senior military and security officials of Hezbollah in close succession.
Then, on Sept. 23, Israel initiated "Operation Northern Arrows," a devastating campaign of airstrikes across southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs. It also targeted neighborhoods in central Beirut, Keserwan, Chouf and even areas of northern Lebanon.
On the 23rd alone, there were hundreds of casualties and hundreds of thousands of displaced people fleeing the bombed areas, according to UN figures. Emmanuel Haddad and Renee Davis went to meet these displaced people and published the following report.
On the afternoon of Sept. 27, more than eighty bombs, each weighing nearly a ton, rained down on Haret Hreik. For hours, conflicting reports circulated in the media and from Israeli sources about the target of this massive strike. Finally, confirmation came: Israel had killed Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, hitting the party’s headquarters directly while also leveling a residential block.
Among Hezbollah supporters, disbelief and shock swept through the ranks. Dany Moudallal, Sally Abou AlJoud and Ghadir Hamadi, captured the reactions of those mourning the loss of the iconic Hezbollah leader.
The assassination of Hassan Nasrallah only strengthened Israel’s resolve to “finish” Hezbollah. The Israeli Air Force escalated its bombing campaign, leaving days and nights in Lebanon punctuated by warnings from Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-speaking spokesperson for the Israeli army.
His messages urged residents of specific buildings, neighborhoods or towns to evacuate within an hour before a missile struck the marked “red zone.” Each warning began with the ominous phrase: “Urgent, to the residents of...”
Was this a method of protection, or a tactic to terrorize civilians? The team at L’Orient Today explored this question in depth.
Then, almost unexpectedly, after two months of relentless violence that spared neither rescuers, hospitals, civilians nor cultural heritage, a ceasefire was established on Nov. 27.
The agreement, the result of negotiations led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, was based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701. It laid the groundwork for the disarmament of Hezbollah south of the Litani River and a reinforced deployment of the Lebanese army in the area.
The deal left many ambiguities, seemingly allowing Israel significant leeway. Yet, for Hezbollah supporters, Nov. 27 held a different meaning, as they declared another “victory” over Israel. Across southern Lebanon, Beirut and the Bekaa Valley, our reporters captured the public’s reactions to the implementation of the truce.
Even in December, the year 2024 continued to keep us on our toes. In a matter of ten days, a coalition of rebel factions in Syria, typically confined to the country’s north, launched a lightning offensive on Damascus and seemingly out of nowhere, the decades-long Assad regime was overthrown.
With Bashar al-Assad having fled to Moscow, his army dismantled and his intelligence services in disarray, Syrians opened the doors of the regime's prisons, freeing thousands of political detainees who had been arbitrarily arrested and tortured there, some for several years. Across Damascus and the rest of the country, Syrians began to experience a new kind of freedom—the ability to speak openly without fear.
Immediately after the regime’s fall, our teams traveled to Damascus and Idlib, returning with a chilling report from Sednaya Prison, a sprawling penitentiary described as being worse than a "human slaughterhouse."
What does the future hold for Syria after the Islamist takeover? What lies ahead for Lebanon, where the ceasefire is nearing its expiration and a parliamentary session to elect a president is scheduled for Jan. 9? And what about the rest of the world, with the forthcoming inauguration of Donald Trump?
As 2025 approaches, it seems certain that the new year will bring its fair share of fresh twists and turns.
