Why are Israel and Hezbollah fighting each other? – Chronology of the recent clashes between the two parties

The Israeli military says it will carry out “extensive” airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon as cross-border attacks between the two sides continue to increase.

They advise the Lebanese civilian population to withdraw from the areas that the Iran-backed group uses for military purposes, and an Israeli army attacks.

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, one person died in Israeli air strikes north of the Bekaa Valley on Monday morning.

This came after a weekend of cross-border attacks in which Hezbollah rockets struck deep inside Israel, hitting targets near the city of Haifa.

Hezbollah's deputy chairman, Ron Tok, has now declared that he is facing an open-ended reckoning with Israel.

The incidents between Israel and Hezbollah are related to the war in the Gaza Strip – but there are other reasons as well.

What is happening now was triggered by a rocket attack by Lebanon-based Hezbollah in and around northern Israel, one day after Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7. Israel retaliated and fighting between the two sides has continued ever since.

Hezbollah said it acted in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as war has been raging between Israel's Hamas and the Gaza Strip since the October 7 attacks.

Cross-border attacks, the likes of which we have not seen since last week, may be a Hezbollah strategy to put additional pressure on Israel and divert resources from the war in Gaza.

But relations between Israel and Hezbollah existed long before the conflict in Gaza and are part of a broader regional dynamic.

Hezbollah is allied with Iran, Israel's arch-enemy, which finances, trains and equips its armed wing, the strongest military power in Lebanon. It presents itself as a resistance movement against Israel, but like Iran, it calls for Israel's destruction.

Since the emergence of Hezbollah in the early 1980s, the two sides have not fought or attacked each other, even during the 34-day war in 2006.

Since then, there have been minor clashes between the tribes on the Israeli-Lebanese border, which erupted in October into fighting that has become increasingly violent and persistent in recent weeks.

Since this morning, Pipo in southern Lebanon have been receiving text and voice messages warning them to stay away from “residential buildings that Hezbollah uses to hide weapons.”

A video circulating on social media (the BBC verified it via a live broadcast from southern Lebanon) shows a villager receiving a voice message saying that the Israeli operation is continuing and has entered a “new phase”.

The voice note continues: “If you find yourself in a village used by Hezbollah, leave immediately for your own safety.”

These phone messages correspond to similar warnings posted on social media – in English and Arabic – by the Israeli military’s secret police.

These warnings are aimed at citizens in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley in the northeast, urging them to stay away from areas where Hezbollah fighters operate or hide weapons.

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary also confirmed that this was the case. In a statement, he said, “a large number of citizens in Beirut are 'receiving' randomly selected telephone messages via the terrestrial network, asking respondents to report from their location.”

One of these messages was also received by the ministry, the statement continued. Makary described it as part of a “psychological war” that Israel is waging.

Meanwhile, a new statement by the Israel Defense Forces said they were “carrying out attacks on terror targets belonging to the terrorist organization Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.”

We previously heard from Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the IDF’s tok tok pesin, that the military in Lebanon would carry out “more extensive and precise” attacks.

He warned Pipo to stay away from Hezbollah targets “for his own safety.”

The Lebanese Ministry of Health recently confirmed that one person had died in Israeli air strikes in the north of the Bekaa Valley.

According to the ministry, six police officers were also injured in the attacks on the outskirts of Hermel, two of them seriously.

Earlier, an NNA report said that a herder had died outside the town of Bodai in the Hermel region.

A separate airstrike on the town of Aitaroun near the Israeli border injured 11 pilots, the ministry said.

Fears of a wider regional conflict in the Middle East have increased over the past week following an increase in cross-border attacks involving Israel and Hezbollah.

What has happened so far, in brief: