South Lebanon is a lesson in steadfastness — an obstinate and determined testament to the willingness of an indigenous people to confront their occupier and achieve absolute victory. Israel’s war of attrition, which was meant to grind down the Lebanese Resistance and its supporters, is brutally evident across both the south of Lebanon, as well as the southern suburbs of Beirut, or Dahye. There, in the aftermath of this nearly year-long war, deep craters, downed buildings, piles of debris, and the smell of white phosphorus overwhelm the senses. The once densely populated suburb is unrecognizable, but people remain, testaments to the revolutionary condition and the prevailing conviction that to persist, against all odds, is itself an act of resistance.
“I will never abandon Dahye, because the suburb and its people have never abandoned me,” says Abu Ali, a young father of four from the Chiyah neighborhood who remained throughout Israel’s bombardment of the suburb. This raw devotion to the struggle for liberation is written across not just every banner reading “we will not abandon Palestine,” but in every face I’ve seen in Dahye, in every head held high despite mounting devastation. “The basis of our present fight stems from the truth and our right to self-determination. We will write our stories, and our struggle will determine the future of not just Lebanon, but the region. It is not enough to see ourselves as singular — no — we are simply one hand, and one hand cannot clap alone,” Abu Ali told me. “I’ve lost everything because of this present dilemma, but I swear I’ve gained more with my sacrifice, and it is all for the sake of the resistance.”
What unifies the people of Dahye and other areas impacted by U.S.-Israeli aggression is an unwavering faith and a clear political line, with Palestine as its compass. What challenges Israeli colonization efforts and its imperial arrogance is not just the Lebanese Resistance, but the ever-increasing revolutionary vision of all the people of Lebanon. In the Dayhe, it is not enough to glorify the gun; one must adhere to explicit principles of armed resistance — dignity, unity, steadfastness, and conscious allegiance to the will of the people. Without the people, there is no resistance. “We are the resistance,” Abu Ali stressed. “My children, my wife, my people wherever they are, we are all the resistance. And they can kill us and bring our houses down on our heads, but they will never strip us of our resistance because it lives on a plane of existence they cannot reach, not by bomb or by drone.” Abu Ali pointed at his chest, “it is here.”
The struggle in Lebanon, a nation still engulfed in the widening U.S.-Israeli genocide against the people of Gaza despite the fragile ceasefire, is part of the far-ranging revolutionary battle against imperialism — a struggle which is not only a question of life and death, but a conscious endeavour to defy efforts to turn Lebanon into another U.S. vassal state. On the battlefield, the myth of imperialist invincibility is shattered with every resistance operation, every burning Merkava tank, and every defiant martyr whose blood has watered our land and prevented a single southern village from falling. Before his assassination on November 17 in an Israeli airstrike on Dahye, Mohammad Afif, Chief of Hezbollah Media Relations, spoke at a conference held on Martyr’s Day. He emphasized that the Lebanese Resistance was succeeding in preventing Israel from achieving its political and military goals. Their sudden openness to diplomacy signaled the success of the Lebanese Resistance in thwarting Israel on the ground, and the recent November 27 “ceasefire” is proof of the resistance’s triumphs. “Not resisting is defeat,” he said that day. “But our understanding of defeat differs from yours. We do not deny that the price is high, but victory is but an hour’s worth of patience. We have prepared for a very long battle, on every level and for every battle, internally and externally.” Afif lived by every word he spoke, and was killed, like Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, while standing defiantly among his people. The main objectives of the U.S.-Israeli project in Lebanon — to break the people’s will, dismantle the Lebanese Resistance, and exact a heavy toll on armed solidarity with Gaza — were met not with defeatism, but with revolutionary optimism. The equation remains the same: we will either die standing or live free.
Israeli and American terrorism, which aims to weaken the Lebanese Resistance — the assassination of Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the sadistic pager attack — failed to deter Hezbollah from engaging on the Northern Front and maintaining its ties to resistance in Gaza. Before his assassination in September, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah dictated the terms of any potential ceasefire: “In the name of the martyrs, the wounded, the ones who lost their eyes and palms, and in the name of every person who has taken on the responsibility of supporting Gaza, we tell Netanyahu and Gallant: the Lebanese front will not stop until the war on Gaza ends.” This red line has remained the guideline for Hezbollah’s confrontation with Israel, in spite of intensifying bombing campaigns and escalating massacres.
The Israeli killing spree across Lebanon’s southern villages and suburbs, Beqaa and Baalbak, has resulted in over 3,000 martyrs and fueled a groundswell of support for the Resistance. During “Operation Formidable In Might,” Hezbollah operations increased and reached deeper into the Israeli entity, including a direct hit on Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea and ongoing strikes against Tel Aviv. The Resistance inflicted heavy material and political losses, imposing the necessary conditions to bring about the withdrawal of Israeli forces from South Lebanon. Israel’s “Operation Northern Arrow,” designed to bring about the return of Israeli settlers to the occupied north of Palestine and end Hezbollah’s fight on the Northern Front, resulted in further displacement of Israeli settlers, and growing casualties among occupation forces — surpassing 130 — who were unable to confront Hezbollah in direct combat. The highly disciplined fighters of the Lebanese Resistance, described by Israeli occupation forces as ghost-like figures who appear on the battlefield out of thin air, proved themselves to be masters of hybrid guerilla warfare, and continue to threaten the U.S.-Israeli project in the region. The United States, which is overseeing the extermination campaign in Gaza and Lebanon, is now unable to regain its lost political and military thrust, despite the overflow of funding to its client state.
The price paid by the people of Lebanon is high — from civilian casualties, thousands injured after two waves of communication attacks, to forced displacement. As a result of the Israeli aggression against Lebanon since October, the number of displaced surged to 1.5 million before the ceasefire, mainly from the South and southern suburbs of Beirut. Among them is Fatme, a seventy-three-year-old woman from the village of Khiam, which has seen intense battles between Hezbollah and Israeli occupation forces. Fatme is still displaced along with ten other relatives, including her son, who was injured in an attack on their village—her home and relatives’ homes destroyed. But her resolve reflects the steadfastness of the people of Dahye. “The sacrifices we are making are worth it,” she said. “For the sake of our resistance and our land, we are willing to endure and continue on this path because we will not be humiliated and we will not allow this occupier to continue the massacres in Gaza without a response. Our homes and even our lives are a small price for the greater compensation of liberation. Even if freedom is delayed, we will be patient and we will return and rebuild.”
Fatme held my hand in hers as we discussed the devastation across Lebanon, squeezing as she described the fragrance of her village and the memories of her life in Khiam, marred by nearly two decades of Israeli occupation that would come to an end as a result of armed resistance in May of 2000. “I want people in Gaza to know we are with them. Our hearts, our souls, our lives, all of this is for them as much as it is for us. We are honored that we could give something on this path. When the world was silent, we stood up with our heads held high, and we will remain committed to this battle. And we will be victorious. Our promise is our bond, and we will be victorious.”
In Beirut on November 26, during a wave of Israeli airstrikes that reached Mar Elias, Barbour, and the outskirts of Hamra, people huddled across the city waiting for confirmation of a ceasefire with bated breath. At the entrance of the American University of Beirut Medical Center, hundreds gathered as drones hovered, and Israeli attacks continued. Suddenly, a delicate quiet took over as the ceasefire was confirmed for 10 am local time — and with that, a round of celebratory gunfire was heard. “We’re going home, thank God! We’re going home!,” shouted a young woman, a smiling child held against her chest. Southerners who’ve faced a torturous, nearly year-long displacement started to gather themselves, and within hours many were already on the road, heading back to their villages — photos of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and Hezbollah martyrs adorned their vehicles, and Hezbollah flags waved across the highway. One family, from the village of Rab Thalatin, told me that the sense of triumph was overwhelming, despite the destruction that awaited them. “Our house is gone, but everything can be rebuilt,” 34-year-old Nour tells me. “The [fighters] on the frontlines have given us a victory that can never be repaid. Our village, our home, it’s part of this greater battle. We are returning with our heads and flags raised higher than before.” Even in Dahye, which has been ravaged by Israeli airstrikes, people have climbed atop the rubble of their buildings and planted flags for Hezbollah, Haraket Amal, and images of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and current Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassim, their faces beaming with pride. “I don’t think this is over,” one man from Burj al Barajneh tells me. “As long as Israel exists, as long as the Palestinians are not free, our battle continues. We will celebrate the sacrifices we’ve given, but this journey is far from over.”
The land of South Lebanon, which has given hundreds of martyrs on the road to Jerusalem, remains a thorn in the eye of our occupier. The humble people of the South, who gave whatever they could in this fight — a struggle they understood to be far greater than themselves — are living testaments to the power of material solidarity with the oppressed. Liberation Day, celebrated every year on May 25, endures, and the indigenous people of this land are now embarking on a new, uncertain path, a path that is still linked to Palestine and its people. The return to the South is itself a promise fulfilled by the Lebanese Resistance fighters and the martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who dedicated and gave their lives to the honourable people of this land and the steadfast people of Gaza. The journey home has begun, but it is incomplete without the liberation of Palestine; and so, our fists remain raised in defiant solidarity alongside them until our people can once again freely cross into each other’s lands.
This piece is part of the issue 14 of the New York War Crimes, the Messengers Edition, which includes dispatches from journalists in Palestine and Lebanon.