Editorials

The Irish Times view on the Hizbullah pager bombs: Israel raises the stakes

The conflict remains teetering on the verge of full-scale war, now if anything more likely

A video grab shows a walkie-talkie that was exploded inside a house in Baalbek, east Lebanon (AP)
A video grab shows a walkie-talkie that was exploded inside a house in Baalbek, east Lebanon (AP)
Fri Sept 20 2024 - 20:00

There is no doubt that the Israeli attack on Hizbullah’s pagers and walkie-talkies, its command and control and communications network, is a tactical coup of no small proportion.

It testified to its technical prowess and ruthlessness in its war against Lebanon’s formidable terrorist force – a humiliating blow struck at the heart of the organisation. Ordinary communication devices became miniature grenades.

But the attack, in which many civilians and children were among the 40 dead and 3,000 injured (many Hizbollah members work for its welfare and health wings and are not combatants) constitutes a war crime, as both Lebanon and the UN insist. One for which Israel must be held to account. Under the Geneva convention the “principle of distinction” requires belligerents to distinguish at all times between the civilian population and combatants. Military commanders are under an obligation to ensure “proportionality” and to do all feasible to verify that targets are not civilians.

However dramatic, moreover, the attack had no real strategic purpose, was not crippling and did not confer on Israel a significant new military advantage.

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Israel’s border communities can also expect to pay a heavy price when Hizbullah retaliates, as it surely will. Bombing of Beirut has continued apace. The conflict between Israel and Lebanon remains teetering on the verge of full-scale war, now if anything more likely. Many observers are predicting an imminent invasion by the Israeli Defence Forces to create a buffer zone in the south of Lebanon.

Is this Binyamin Netanyahu ‘s purpose, his critics ask. At a time when the crucial talks over Gaza and the hostages, which all accept are key to regional de-escalation, are so delicately balanced, does Israel really want peace?

The working assumption that neither side wants an all-out war has seen each calibrate or match its strikes against the other, a “response equation”, to avoid serious escalation. Israel seems to be saying “no more”.