The war in Lebanon, explained
The Global Story
BBC
3.8 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Shortly after the US-Israeli war with Iran began, a second war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Lebanese authorities say that more than 900 people, including at least 111 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since 2 March. More than a million others have been forced to leave their homes.
On Wednesday, Israel widened its air strikes from the southern suburbs of Beirut into the city centre. And there are fears that what Israel has called a “limited” ground operation could lead to an occupation of the south. Israel says it is targeting not only Hezbollah fighters and leaders, but also businesses it claims are linked to the group and help finance its military operations. From his post in Beirut, BBC Middle East correspondent Hugo Bachega explains the long history of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, and we ask what could come next.
Producers: Chris Benderev and Aron Keller Sound engineer: Travis Evans Senior news editor: China Collins
Photo Credit: Smoke rises after an Israeli strike in central Beirut's Bachoura neighbourhood, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Beirut, Lebanon, 12 March, 2026. Creit: Claudia Greco/Reuters
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.0 | It's September the 17th, 2024 at 3.30pm, Beirut time, and all over the city, there are small explosions, and they happen at exactly the same time. |
| 0:19.6 | Tonight, shockwaves and panic across Lebanon after a stunning, unprecedented attack, both |
| 0:26.4 | widespread and personal. |
| 0:28.7 | Members of the armed group Hezbollah are being simultaneously attacked by their pagers. |
| 0:36.3 | Ambulances reverberating through cities one after another. |
| 0:42.1 | It was one of the most audacious and complex covert operations ever mounted. |
| 0:48.7 | And Western intelligence agencies say the Mossad, Israeli foreign intelligence, was behind it. |
| 0:56.4 | Hezbollah has not only lost a principal way it communicates, but had operatives killed, |
| 1:02.3 | and hundreds put out of commission for weeks, if not months to come. |
| 1:07.6 | Back then, it looked like Hezbollah had taken a crippling blow. |
| 1:11.9 | And yet here we are, 18 months later, |
| 1:14.1 | and Israel is so concerned about Hezbollah again, |
| 1:17.8 | a group that says it wants to destroy Israel, |
| 1:20.7 | that they've invaded Lebanon to do something about it. |
| 1:24.3 | And they're doing this at the exact same time |
| 1:26.4 | they're waging another war altogether in Iran. |
| 1:31.4 | From the BBC, I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. |
| 1:35.5 | And I'm Tristan Redmond in London. |
| 1:37.7 | And today on the global story, who are Hezbollah? |
| 1:41.6 | And how do they keep coming back? |
| 1:53.2 | Yeah. are Hezbollah. And how do they keep coming back? I'm Hugo Meshiga. I am a Middle East correspondent based in Beirut. And I've been here since October 2023, so it's been very busy. |
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