In the days before polling day in the US presidential elections, Washington attempted to mediate a temporary truce between Hizbullah and Israel.

The latter dragged its feet, hoping for elusive military gains, and despite the mediation efforts, Israel sustained its intensive bombardment of Lebanon and its faltering stabs at a ground incursion in the south. On Saturday, it broke new ground with a marine style landing at Batroun beach.

Meanwhile, Hizbullah’s Shura Council elected a new secretary-general to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, assassinated on 27 September in an Israeli airstrike on Hizbullah’s underground headquarters in Dahiya in southern Beirut.

Hashem Safieddine was expected to replace him, as he had been groomed for the position for decades, until another Israeli strike killed him.

It took several weeks to confirm the killing, as Israel, in keeping with the savagery it has displayed for the past year, turned the area into a no-go zone with its non-stop airstrikes, preventing rescue teams from coming to the aid of the civilians trapped in the rubble.

After Safieddine’s body was recovered, Hizbullah began the search for a new secretary-general. Contrary to expectations it might call for a period of collective leadership as a form of tribute to Nasrallah, Hizbullah’s Shura Council elected Naim Qassem in what analysts believe was a decision intended to reaffirm the Lebanese resistance organisation’s unity and stability.

Deputy secretary-general since 1991, Qassem represents continuity. In addition to his deep knowledge of Hizbullah’s administration, he is also widely respected as a Shia religious authority. However, he has not been closely involved with the military side of the resistance organisation and has never been a member of the Jihad Council, which has overseen its military affairs since the mid-1990s.

It appears that Hizbullah chose to elevate a prominent political figure so as not to risk losing another key military leader by bringing him into the public eye through his election as leader. Israel has made no secret of its threat to kill whoever is appointed secretary-general.

In his first speech after his appointment, Qassem said that Hizbullah had recovered its balance after the blows it had sustained in just 11 days and that it had begun to retaliate with long-range missiles capable of reaching deep into the Israeli interior.

He said that Hizbullah forces had thwarted the advances of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in the south, inflicting numerous casualties of 90 dead and 750 wounded, 40 tanks and four military bulldozers destroyed, and five drones downed.

Tel Aviv acknowledged losing only 38 soldiers in Lebanon in October.

While Qassem may be no match for Nasrallah in terms of charisma and rhetorical skills, he was able to project the calm and confidence needed to reassure Hizbullah’s supporters and give hope to the over a million civilians displaced and traumatised by the IOF’s carpet-bombing.

Qassem saluted the displaced for their patience and steadfastness and the many people of all faiths and sectors of Lebanese society who have hosted them. He promised compensation to the victims and reconstruction, just as occurred after Hizbullah repelled the Israeli aggression in 2006.

Qassem does not appear intent on leaving his mark on Hizbullah. His focus was on continuity and a desire to follow the example set by the previous leadership. He made frequent references to Nasrallah as an exceptional leader who had the foresight to structure Hizbullah’s bodies in an institutionalised manner to ensure its ability to function effectively after his passing.

He also stressed that the mutually supportive relationship between Iran and Hizbullah would continue, and that Hizbullah could fight for months without asking for a ceasefire. On the other hand, if offered a truce, Hizbullah would accept it and study serious proposals to end the war once the ceasefire took effect.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri have been negotiating indirectly through the US over a possible ceasefire agreement. Although Beirut has repeatedly said it is ready to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701 immediately and deploy the UN peacekeepers UNIFIL and the Lebanese army in the south, Tel Aviv insists that that is not enough and wants additional means to ensure the resolution’s enforcement.

US Special Envoy Amos Hochstein visited Beirut two weeks ago, carrying with him another proposal for implementing Resolution 1701. While most of the substance has not been disclosed, leaked information indicates that it contains provisions granting Israel the freedom to conduct military operations in Lebanon by land, air, or sea to prevent Hizbullah from rearming and reestablishing a military presence in the south after the resolution is implemented.

Israel followed through on Hochstein’s visit by escalating its bombardment of vital civilian facilities in Tyre, Baalbek, Hermel and Dahiya, all areas where Berri’s constituencies are based. Israeli missiles targeted areas around hospitals, civil-defence facilities and UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Tyre and Baalbek.

Ostensibly, the “political” aim of the destruction was to up the pressure on Lebanon to force Hizbullah to accept an agreement that would allow Israel to violate Lebanese sovereignty at will.

Hochstein returned to the region last week, this time calling in on Tel Aviv to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a truce. It was a last pre-election push to show Arab-Americans that the Biden-Harris administration is doing “everything in its power” to end the war.

Hochstein had with him another US envoy, Brett McGurk, and together they laid out a proposal calling for a 60-day truce, during which the IOF would stage a phased withdrawal from the towns and cities it has destroyed in Southern Lebanon, while UNIFIL and the Lebanese army would take up positions in these areas up to the Lebanese border with Israel.

Predictably, Netanyahu dismissed the proposal, convinced he stands to win more by force than through diplomacy and that it would be better to wait to see who the next occupant of the White House will be before deciding his next step.

After the US envoys failure to get results from Tel Aviv, a final pitch was made to coax Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire. The proposal was rejected.

Demonstrating its freedom to ride roughshod over Lebanese sovereignty, an Israeli commando force of about 25 marines staged a landing at Batroun beach on Saturday, apparently to abduct a sea captain.

Israeli authorities claim he was a high-ranking figure in Hizbullah’s naval forces who oversaw arms transports by sea. Hizbullah did not comment on the captain’s alleged connection. Lebanese security and military agencies denied that the abductee was affiliated with any of their ranks, stressing that he was a civilian captain who was taking a capacity-building training course at a naval sciences institute in the area.

It is impossible to know whether Hizbullah has succeeded in remedying the security breach that facilitated the earlier assassination of its key leaders. However, if the captain was indeed connected to Hizbullah, his abduction suggests that Israel’s or its allies’ moles may have been sniffed out, leading Israel to resort to kidnapping tactics to gather intelligence.

Whatever the case may be, the operation reflects Israel’s desire to operate in Lebanon undeterred, which would also help explain its reluctance to entertain ceasefire initiatives. It calculates that ongoing hostilities keep its options open to project its military superiority and reach anywhere it claims poses a threat to its security.

Israel has displaced over 1.2 million people with its ongoing bombardments across Southern Lebanon, the Bekaa, and southern Beirut. It has destroyed countless residential buildings and civilian facilities on the pretext that they were Hizbullah hideouts or weapons depots.

Since it launched its assault against Lebanon, Israel has killed at least 2,986 civilians and injured 13,402. After about five weeks of such brutality, Israeli forces have advanced only three km into Southern Lebanon while claiming they have destroyed Hizbullah’s defensive infrastructure and a large portion of its arms and missile stockpiles.

Hizbullah’s response has been to fire around 200 rockets a day at military targets, such as military factories, bases, and airfields, and military sites and installations along the border from Metula in the east to Naqoura in the west.

Hizbullah’s drones also continue to penetrate Israeli airspace undeterred, reaching areas in the vicinity of Tel Aviv and forcing some two million Israelis into fortified bunkers and generally paralysing normal life in the north during rocket and drone attacks.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 7 November, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly