Ghosts Of Beirut: 40-Year Shadow War, Spy Ops Between Israel And Lebanon

Israeli airstrikes on Monday killed at 492, including 35 children, in Lebanon, marking the deadliest attack on the country in nearly two decades. This came just days after thousands of pagers, still used in the country, exploded and killed at least 32 people and injured scores of others. Lebanon claimed Israel was behind those explosions as well.

Tensions between Israel and militant-group Hezbollah have escalated on unprecedented levels in the last year after Hamas’ October 7 attack. Even though Hezbollah said it had nothing to do with the attack on Southern Israel, it has continued to support the militant group in Gaza where Israeli airstrikes have killed over 40,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly the entire population.  

The shadow war

The shadow war between Israeli intelligence agencies and Hezbollah goes back over 40 years. In the early 1980s, Israel invaded Lebanon to uproot the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). While Israel achieved an initial victory by forcing the PLO to withdraw from Beirut, a disastrous event in November 1982 marked the beginning of Israel’s ongoing struggle against Hezbollah. 

In one of the first major blows, a massive explosion destroyed the headquarters of Israel’s internal intelligence service, Shin Bet, in the town of Tyre, killing 91 people. It was revealed to be one of the first suicide car bombings, orchestrated by militant Shia Islamists who would later go on to form Hezbollah.

Hezbollah

Founded in 1983 with Iranian backing, Hezbollah quickly became one of Israel’s most formidable enemies. The organisation, adept at both guerilla warfare and covert operations, continued its efforts to destabilise Israeli targets both within and outside Lebanon. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Hezbollah conducted numerous attacks, including the bombings of the US and French military barracks in Beirut. 

Hezbollah managed to fund its operations through a vast network of supporters, including in South America, which emerged as a key aspect of the shadow war. The organisation’s involvement in both legal and illegal activities, such as drug trafficking and money laundering, enabled it to amass significant resources, which Israel struggled to disrupt.

A prime example of Hezbollah’s global reach came in the early 1990s when following the assassination of Hezbollah leader Abbas al-Musawi by Israeli forces, the militant group retaliated by bombing the Israeli embassy and a Jewish community centre in Argentina’s Buenos Aires, killing over 100 people. 

Spy Ops

However, Israel’s spy agency Mossad also remained relentless. Mossad, in a series of high-profile assassinations, targeted senior Hezbollah and Iranian operatives involved in planning attacks against Israel.

The elusive Hezbollah military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, was a particular target of Israeli intelligence. Mughniyeh, credited with masterminding several high-profile attacks, including the 1983 bombings in Lebanon, evaded capture for decades. It wasn’t until 2008 that Israeli forces, along with the CIA, succeeded in killing Mughniyeh with a car bomb in Damascus.

Hezbollah retaliated with numerous attempts to target Israeli embassies and civilians, including the 2012 suicide bus bombing in Bulgaria that killed five Israelis.

This year, in July 2024, Israel successfully eliminated two high-ranking Hezbollah officials, Fuad Shukr and Ibrahim Aqil. They were involved in the 1980s attacks on Israeli forces in Lebanon.

The shadow war has not been limited to conventional or even guerilla tactics. One of the most infamous attacks came in the form of the Stuxnet computer virus, a joint Israeli-American operation that targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2010. This cyberattack, which destroyed centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz facility, marked the first known instance of a cyber operation causing physical damage.

Most recently, Hezbollah and Israel have engaged in a new type of high-tech warfare. In September 2024, Hezbollah acknowledged that a series of attacks involving exploding pagers and walkie-talkies had inflicted severe damage on the group. The operations bore the hallmarks of Mossad even though Israel has not officially claimed responsibility.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, called Israel’s recent actions a “declaration of war”.