Hezbollah launches big attack on Israel, sonic booms rattle Beirut

CHEBAA, Lebanon: With the difficult situation in Gaza and no clear end to the conflict on the Lebanese-Israeli border, daily exchanges of airstrikes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have sparked fires that are devastating forests and farmlands on both sides of the front line.
The fires — fueled by supply shortages and security concerns — have engulfed thousands of hectares of land in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, in one of the most visible signs of the escalating conflict.
The possibility of a full-scale war is becoming increasingly real—one that would have devastating consequences for people on both sides of the border. Some fear that the fires sparked by a larger conflict could also do irreversible damage to the land.
Charred remains in Lebanon
In Israel, images of fires started by Hezbollah rockets have sparked public outrage and prompted Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to declare last month that “the time has come for all of Lebanon to burn.”
Much of it was already burning.
The fires in Lebanon began in late April — earlier than the usual start of the fire season — and have mostly devastated rural areas along the border.
The Sunni town of Chebaa, tucked away in the mountains on Lebanon’s southeastern tip, has a small Hezbollah presence, and the town has not been targeted as often as other border villages. But the sound of shelling still echoes regularly, and in the mountains above it, once-oak ridges are charred and bare.
In a cherry orchard on the outskirts of town, clusters of fruit hang amid browned leaves after a fire ignited by an Israeli attack. Firefighters and local men — some using their shirts to put out the flames — kept the blaze from spreading to homes and a nearby U.N. peacekeeping facility.
“The grass will come back next year, but the trees are gone,” said Moussa Saab, whose family owns the orchard. “We will have to get seedlings and plant them, and it will take five or seven years before we can start harvesting.”
Saab refuses to leave with his wife and 8-year-old daughter. They cannot afford to live elsewhere and fear they will be unable to return, as happened to his parents when they left the disputed Chebaa Farms area — captured by Israel from Syria in 1967 and claimed by Lebanon.
Burn scars in Israel
The slopes of Mount Meron, the second highest mountain in Israel and home to an air base, had long been covered with native oaks, and the dense grove provided habitat for wild pigs, gazelles, and rare species of flowers and fauna.
Now the green slopes are punctuated by three new burn scars — the largest measuring several hundred square meters — left by a Hezbollah drone shot down weeks ago. Park rangers fear the devastation is only just beginning.
“This year’s damage is several times greater than last year,” said Shai Koren of the northern district of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.
Looking out over the slopes of Mount Meron, Koren said he doesn’t expect this forest to survive the summer: “You can take a before and after photo.”
Numbers and weapons
Since the start of the war, the Israeli military has tracked 5,450 launches into northern Israel. Most of the early launches were short-range anti-tank rockets, but Hezbollah has increased its use of drones, according to Israeli think tank Alma Research and Education Center.
In Lebanon, officials and human rights groups accuse Israel of firing white phosphorus incendiary shells at residential areas, as well as regular artillery shelling and airstrikes.
The Israeli military says it uses white phosphorus only as a smoke screen, not to attack populated areas. But even in open areas, the projectiles can start fast-spreading fires.
The border clashes began on Oct. 8, a day after Hamas invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and sparking a war in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 37,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Hezbollah has begun firing rockets into northern Israel in a bid to create what it calls a “support front” for Hamas and to pull Israeli forces out of Gaza.
Israel responded, and attacks spread across the border region. In northern Israel, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians were killed. In Lebanon, more than 450 people were killed—mostly fighters, but also more than 80 civilians and noncombatants.
The exchanges have intensified since early May, when Israel launched its invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, coinciding with the start of the hot, dry forest fire season.
According to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, 8,700 hectares (about 21,500 acres) in northern Israel have been burned since May by Hezbollah attacks.
Eli Mor of the Israel Fire and Rescue Service said the drones, which are much more accurate than missiles, often “arrive one after another, one with a camera, the other shooting.”
“Every launch of a ship poses a real threat,” Mor added.
In southern Lebanon, about 4,000 hectares (1,200 to 1,500 acres) have burned due to Israeli attacks, said George Mitri of the Land and Natural Resources program at the University of Balamand. In the two previous years, he said, the total area burned in Lebanon each year was between 500 and 600 hectares (1,200 and 1,500 acres).
Fire reaction
Safety concerns have hampered response in the crucial first hours of a fire. Firefighting aircraft are largely grounded for fear of being shot down. On the ground, firefighters often can’t move without a military escort.
“If we lose half an hour or an hour, it could take us an extra day or two to contain the fire,” said Mohammad Saadeh, head of the Chebaa civil defense station. The station responded to 27 fires in three weeks last month — almost as many as in a normal year.
Across the border, Moran Arinovsky, a former chef, is now deputy commander of the rescue squad at Kibbutz Manara. He and about 10 others have put out more than 20 fires in the past two months.
Mor of the Israel Fire and Rescue Service said firefighters often have to make selections.
“Sometimes we have to give up open areas that do not pose a threat to people or cities,” Mor said.
The border areas are largely depopulated. The Israeli government evacuated a 4-kilometer strip at the beginning of the war, leaving only soldiers and rescue personnel. There is no formal evacuation order in Lebanon, but large swaths have become virtually uninhabited.
In nine months, some 95,000 people were displaced in Lebanon and 60,000 in Israel.
Kibbutz Sde Nehemia was not evacuated, and Efrat Eldan Schechter said she sometimes watches helplessly as plumes of smoke approach her home.
“It has a psychological impact, an awareness and a feeling that we are alone,” she said, because firefighters cannot access certain areas.
Israeli cowboys who herd cattle on the Golan Heights often join forces to put out fires when firefighters cannot arrive quickly.
Schechter noted that footage of flames engulfing hillsides has focused more attention on the conflict in her backyard, rather than solely on the war in Gaza. “It wasn’t until the fires started that we were on the front pages of newspapers in Israel,” she said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that once the fighting in Gaza ends, Israel will send more troops to its northern border. That could open a new front and increase the risk of more devastating fires.
Koren says natural forest fires are a normal part of the forest life cycle and can promote ecodiversity, but conflict fires are not. “The moment fires happen over and over again, that’s when they cause damage,” he said.