An ambulance moves carrying the wounded from the scene of an Israeli airs trike in Beirut's southern suburbs on Sept. 24.Hassan Ammar/The Associated Press
Escalating hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group are the latest episode in decades of conflict across the Lebanese-Israeli border. Here is the history:
1948
Lebanon fights alongside other Arab countries against the nascent state of Israel. Around 100,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in what had been British-ruled Palestine during the war arrive in Lebanon as refugees. Lebanon and Israel agree to an armistice in 1949.
1968
Israeli commandos destroy a dozen passenger planes at Beirut airport in response to an attack on an Israeli airliner by a Lebanon-based Palestinian guerrilla group.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) relocates to Lebanon two years later after its expulsion from Jordan, leading to increased cross-border flare-ups.
Explainer: Is this war? The Israeli-Hezbollah conflict is difficult to define – or predict
1973
Disguised Israeli special forces shoot dead three Palestinian guerrilla leaders in Beirut in retaliation for the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Palestinian guerrilla raids into Israel and Israeli military reprisals on targets in Lebanon intensify during the 1970s, leading many Lebanese to flee their country’s south and aggravating sectarian tensions in Lebanon, where civil war is starting.
1978
Israel invades south Lebanon and sets up a narrow occupation zone in an operation against Palestinian guerrillas after a militant attack near Tel Aviv. Israel backs a local Christian militia called the South Lebanese Army (SLA).
1982
Israel invades Lebanon all the way to Beirut in an offensive that followed tit-for-tat border fire. Thousands of Palestinian fighters are evacuated by sea after a bloody 10-week siege of the Lebanese capital involving heavy Israeli bombardment of West Beirut. Hundreds of civilians in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila are massacred by Christian militiamen allowed in by Israeli troops after Lebanon’s newly elected Maronite Catholic president is killed by a car bomb. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards establish the Shi'ite Muslim armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
1985
Israel pulled back from central Lebanon in 1983 but retained forces in the south. It establishes a formal occupation zone in southern Lebanon, about 15 km (nine miles) deep, controlling the area with its SLA ally. Hezbollah wages guerrilla war against Israeli forces.
Explainer: What is Hezbollah and what is its role in Lebanon?
1996
With Hezbollah regularly attacking Israeli forces in the south and firing rockets into northern Israel, Israel mounts a 17-day “Operation Grapes of Wrath” offensive that kills more than 200 people in Lebanon, including 102 who die when Israel shells a U.N. base near the south Lebanon village of Qana.
2000
Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon, ending 22 years of occupation.
2006
In July, Hezbollah crosses the border into Israel, kidnaps two Israeli soldiers and kills others, sparking a five-week war involving heavy Israeli strikes on both Hezbollah strongholds and national infrastructure.
While Israeli ground forces move into southern Lebanon, much of the conflict is conducted by Israeli air strikes and Hezbollah rocket fire. It ends without Israel achieving its military objectives and with Hezbollah declaring it a “divine victory.”
At least 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 158 Israelis, mostly soldiers, are killed.
Lebanon sees deadliest day of conflict since 2006
2023
On Oct. 8, Hezbollah begins trading fire with Israel a day after the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked communities in southern Israel and sparked the Gaza war.
Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, says its attacks aim to support Palestinians under Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli air strikes pound border areas of south Lebanon and target sites in the Bekaa valley while Hezbollah strikes northern Israel. Tens of thousands flee their homes on both sides of the border.
2024
In July, a strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights kills 12 youths. Hezbollah denies involvement, but Israel kills a senior commander from the group in a strike near Beirut.
In August, Hezbollah retaliates with hundreds of rockets and drones onto Israel, saying it targeted a base north of Tel Aviv.
The conflict escalates further in September when thousands of Hezbollah’s wireless communications devices explode in an apparent Israeli attack, killing dozens and wounding thousands. An Israeli strike in Beirut kills senior Hezbollah commanders.
Days later, Israel launches its biggest bombardment of the war, killing more than 500 people in a single day and driving tens of thousands to flee the south, according to Lebanese authorities.