NEW YORK TIMES
Three Lebanese soldiers were killed on Sunday by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, drawing condemnation from the Lebanese Armed Forces and prompting Israel’s military to apologize for what it called “these unwanted circumstances.”
The Israeli military said on Sunday that its troops had struck a Hezbollah truck with a launcher on it and later struck again after seeing another truck in the same area, a “combat zone” where Hezbollah had attacked Israeli troops. But the military “later concluded that the truck was owned by the Lebanese Army, and that three operatives were killed.”
The deaths of the Lebanese soldiers highlighted the complicated dynamic that Lebanon’s army is navigating as Israel invades its territory to fight Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant and political group with significant influence in the country.
The Lebanese Army is not a party to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Still, Lebanon’s military does not support Israel’s invasion of its country, and referred to Israel as the “enemy” in statements on Sunday and Monday about the soldiers’ deaths, saying they were targeted when they were driving in an army vehicle in southern Lebanon.
By contrast, the Israeli military said in a statement that it is “not operating against the Lebanese Army and apologizes for these unwanted circumstances.”
It was the third time this month that Israeli troops have killed Lebanese soldiers amid Israel’s war with Hezbollah. And the incident came just a day before the Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun of the Lebanese Armed Forces met with Amos Hochstein, President Biden’s envoy on the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, to discuss the situation in Lebanon and “ways to support the Lebanese Army.”
American officials have expressed hope that Israel’s attacks will weaken Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terrorist organization, and loosen the group’s hold on Lebanese institutions and society. The United States has provided financial and training support to Lebanon’s armed forces, amounting to more than $3 billion since 2006.
But if the Lebanese army were to get drawn into Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah, the United States would find itself in the awkward position of having two American-supported militaries fighting each other.
“It’s already tricky where you have U.S.-backed forces killing U.S.-backed forces,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior fellow and director of military analysis for Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank.
The risk of Lebanon’s army entering the fray is low, Ms. Kavanagh said. The army has long maintained a position of neutrality that has given it legitimacy with international players like the United States, which it would quickly lose if it joined the fight, she said.
“It would be difficult for the U.S. to fund the Lebanese Armed Forces if they fight Israel,” she said.
And Lebanon’s army adopted its neutral position in part because it is “extremely weak” economically and otherwise, Ms. Kavanagh said. Lebanon has been in a severe economic crisis since 2019, leaving the army scrambling to recruit, pay salaries, train and get equipment, and it is no match for either Israel or Hezbollah, she said.
But she said the view that Israel’s war against Hezbollah could prove advantageous for Lebanon in the long term is held mostly by those outside the country. The Lebanese army does want to be stronger, she said, but Israel “just taking out Hezbollah positions isn’t going to get it there.”
The Lebanese army was supposed to work with United Nations peacekeepers to ensure that Hezbollah militants could not operate in southern Lebanon, according to a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution, known as 1701, that ended the last war between Israel and Hezbollah. The army has been criticized for failing to enforce the terms of that resolution, which international diplomats are now seeking to revive.
In his visit to Lebanon on Monday, Mr. Hochstein, the American envoy, pledged to support Lebanon’s reconstruction if the U.N. resolution is enforced, seeming to suggest that the United States wants the Lebanese government to push for Hezbollah’s disarmament in southern Lebanon, and to deploy more Lebanese troops in its place.
But the army still plays an important role in Lebanon even if it is not undertaking the traditional job of a military to maintain its country’s territorial integrity. As long as Israel maintains its position that it is not at war with Lebanon or its people and is targeting only Hezbollah — and if Lebanon argues that it doesn’t have effective control over Hezbollah, from a legal perspective — the two states are not in an armed conflict and the army’s primary role is focused inward, experts say.
“Its role is to protect the state and its people, to protect Lebanese civilians,” said Noha Aboueldahab, an assistant professor of international law at Georgetown University in Qatar. “They need to play a humanitarian role for civilians.”
