Hezbollah’s Use of Civilian Cover and the Upcoming Humanitarian Catastrophe in Lebanon

A caption from a video published on X after Israel’s strike on a Hezbollah ammunition depot last week in the Bekaa Valley

Hezbollah’s response to the targeted killing of Fuad Shukr, one of its top military commanders, is over. However, the ongoing cycle of violence between Israel and Hezbollah is still far from ending. The events of the past weeks have exposed a critical element of the organization’s covert modus operandi inside Lebanon that holds grave implications as the fighting continues.

An Israeli airstrike on a secret weapons depot in the eastern Bekaa Valley last week resulted in huge secondary explosions and the uncontrolled launches of missiles that were stored in the warehouse. The images that quickly spread on social media left little doubt regarding the contents of the attacked site. The event exposed Hezbollah’s use of the civilian environment as a cover for its clandestine military infrastructures, and the organization tried to mitigate the public criticism of the risk this practice poses to civilians by claiming Israel hit “greenhouses.”

Three weeks earlier, the same scenario happened after Israel attacked another covert weapon cache near the village of Adloun in southern Lebanon. Once again, images on social media of massive secondary explosions and uncontrolled shootings of projectiles after the airstrike left no question regarding the nature of the content that was stored in the site. In the aftermath of that attack and the massive explosions that followed it, which could be heard from miles away, Hezbollah prevented any access to the site and claimed the target was a “civilian battery factory.”

Those incidents shed light on a well-known secret in Lebanon regarding Hezbollah’s use of civilian infrastructures as a cover for its military capabilities. For years, Israel has warned and published information exposing this reckless behavior, but the authorities in Lebanon chose to turn a blind eye or even cooperate with Hezbollah's coverup efforts. 

As the risk of further escalation in the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel is looming over the region, it appears that Israel is moving from warning to demonstrating, through highly accurate strikes of chosen targets, the devastating potential of Hezbollah's conduct of war. Much like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah's use of civilians as a cover for its military operations is a clear violation of international law. 

By choosing to embed themselves among the innocent population, these terror organizations hope to achieve a “win-win” situation. Israel might refrain from hitting these targets due to the operational limitations it imposes on itself by virtue of adherence to the laws of war. Nevertheless, in cases where Israel will hit the target based on precise intelligence, Hezbollah will manipulate any potential damage to uninvolved civilians to create international pressure to stop the Jewish state’s military campaign. 

Both Hamas and Hezbollah hold limited, if any, concern for the civilian population influenced by their actions and, therefore, can engage in asymmetrical illegal warfare, which is a basic characteristic of their “resistance” ideology. Another characteristic of this ideology is that the concept of “victory” is minimized to surviving the war, as Hassan Nasrallah claimed after the targeting killing of Fuad Shukr: “The battle's objective now is not to eradicate Israel but rather to prevent it from winning.” 

By now, after ten months of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, Israel has already demonstrated its intelligence superiority and its ability to locate and hit Hezbollah’s commanders and secret military infrastructures across Lebanon. It should be assumed that the pinpoint attacks are part of a deliberate effort to deter Hezbollah from continuing its attacks on northern Israel and, at the same time, to illustrate to the Lebanese government and population, as well as to the international community, the risk posed by Hezbollah’s terroristic methods of placing its military infrastructures in proximity to civilian populations. 

Hezbollah’s attempts to create a false narrative according to which Israel attacked innocent civilian targets is a clear sign that its leadership is aware of the negative Lebanese public opinion regarding the organization's actions and the risk it poses to the Lebanese state. Nevertheless, the limited public criticism and the lack of any attempt by the government in Beirut to restrain Hezbollah mean its calculations will remain unchanged. 

At the same time, Hezbollah continues its daily launch of missiles and drones toward Israel and insists that any cessation of hostilities will be linked to the developments in Gaza. At the same time, it tries to deter Israel from escalating the situation, as evident in the propaganda video it published showing its underground military capabilities.   

As Israel’s firepower is by far greater than that of Hezbollah, the outcome of the ongoing dynamic risks being an all-out war that will cause severe damage to Israel but will have a catastrophic effect on Lebanon and its population. 

Dror Doron is a senior advisor at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) focusing on Hezbollah and Lebanon. He spent nearly two decades as a senior analyst in the Office of Israel’s Prime Minister. Dror is on Twitter @DrorDoron.