Collateral damage:Civil defence workers extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut, Lebanon.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Lebanese civilians most devastated by the Israel-Hezbollah war are Shia Muslims, and many of them believe they are being unfairly punished because they share a religious identity with Hezbollah militants and often live in the same areas.

“This is clear,” said Wael Murtada, a young Shia man who anxiously watched paramedics search rubble after a recent Israeli airstrike destroyed his uncle’s two-story home and killed 10 people. “Who else is being attacked?”

Israel has concentrated its attacks on villages in southern and northeastern Lebanon and neighbourhoods south of Beirut. This is where many Hezbollah militants operate from, and their families live side by side with large numbers of Shia Muslims who are not members of the group.

Israel insists its war is with Hezbollah and not the Lebanese people — or the Shia faith. It says it only targets members of the Iran-backed militant group to try to end their year-long campaign of firing rockets over the border.

But Israel’s stated objectives mean little to people like Mr. Murtada as growing numbers of Shia civilians also die in a war that escalated sharply in recent months.

Shia Muslims do not just measure the suffering of their community in deaths and injuries. Entire blocks of the coastal city of Tyre have been flattened. Large parts of the historic market in the city of Nabatiyeh, which dates to the Ottoman era, have been destroyed.

Sectarian tensions

As Shia Muslims flee their war-torn villages and neighbourhoods, the conflict is increasingly following them to other parts of Lebanon, and this is fueling tensions.

Scores of people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes on Christian, Sunni, and Druze areas where displaced Shia Muslims had taken refuge. Many residents in these areas now think twice before providing shelter to displaced people out of fear they may have links to Hezbollah.

“The Israelis are targeting all of Lebanon,” said Wassef Harakeh, a lawyer from Beirut’s southern suburbs who in 2022 ran against Hezbollah in the country’s parliamentary elections and whose office was recently demolished by an Israeli airstrike.

He believes part of Israel’s goal is to exacerbate frictions within the small Mediterranean country, which has a long history of sectarian fighting even though diverse groups live together peacefully these days.

Some Shia Muslims say statements from the Israeli military over the years have only reinforced suspicions that their wider community is being targeted as a means to put pressure on Hezbollah.

One commonly cited example is the so-called Dahiyeh doctrine, which was first espoused by Israeli generals during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. It is a reference to the southern suburbs of Beirut where Hezbollah is headquartered and where entire residential blocks, bridges, and shopping compounds were destroyed in both wars. Israel says Hezbollah hides weapons and fighters in such areas, turning them into legitimate military targets.

Hezbollah has long boasted about its ability to deter Israel, but the latest war has proven otherwise and taken a severe toll on its leadership.

Some Shia Muslims fear the weakening of Hezbollah will lead to the entire community being sidelined politically once the war is over. But others believe it could offer a political opening for more diverse Shia voices.