A quarter-century later: Two wars, two realities for Hezbollah

LBCI

25-05-2025

Report by Wissam Nasrallah, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian
A quarter-century has passed since Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanese territory—reluctantly, not voluntarily—under the pressure of persistent resistance operations. That remains a fact.
Since then, Israel has launched two wars on Lebanon. In the first, the July 2006 war, Hezbollah emerged victorious.
Few can deny the footage showing Merkava tanks hit by Kornet missiles in Wadi al-Hujeir—missiles that Israel was unaware Hezbollah even possessed at the time. Nor can anyone claim Israel succeeded in assassinating any top Hezbollah leader during that war.
The prisoner exchange that followed revealed the fate of two captured Israeli soldiers—returned in coffins in exchange for five living Lebanese detainees and the remains of nearly 200 others.
The second war, however, told a different story. That is also a fact. Just as it is difficult to dismiss Hezbollah's battlefield accomplishments in 2006, it is harder to overlook the scale of Israeli strikes since the September 2024 offensive.
From the operation involving pager explosions to thousands of airstrikes over a short period, the toll includes thousands of casualties, the assassination of much of Hezbollah's command-and-control unit—including Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah—and the destruction of southern villages during the ceasefire, followed by Israeli incursions into Lebanese territory.
Still, Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal Movement, have reasserted their local support, winning a majority of municipal councils in Shiite-majority areas of the south and the Bekaa.
The question remains: how much does the win matter to Washington, especially following a war that shifted the balance of power and intensified U.S. calls for Hezbollah's disarmament?
Hezbollah, for its part, maintains that the issue of disarmament applies only to the area south of the Litani River.
The reality after 2006 is not the same as the one after 2024. Simply put, the outcomes of the two wars are not just different—they are contradictory. The question now is how Hezbollah will navigate this new phase—and, more critically, what timeline Washington has set for achieving its stated goals.