— SPECIAL REPORT —
SEEN FROM THE GROUND:
THE LONG-LASTING MILITARY AND GEOPOLITICAL CONFRONTATION BETWEEN IRAN AND ISRAEL WITNESSED BY A REPORTER IN LEBANON AND SYRIA
2024/11/07 LUCA STEINMANN
Introduction
The fighting and killings currently ongoing in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon are the epicenter of a much larger regional conflict that pits Israel against Iran. After the pogroms of October 7, 2023 and the humiliation suffered on that occasion by Israeli intelligence, the Jewish state has launched a military and political campaign outside its borders to redraw the geopolitical balance throughout the region and eliminate what the Jewish authorities believe to be the main threats to their security. This is pirouetting Israel into a long-term war that sees its troops and intelligence engaged simultaneously on multiple fronts. In enunciating the main threats to national security, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained that Israel is fighting on seven fronts with as many enemies. They include Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, ‘terrorists’ in the West Bank, and the Shiite militia in Iraq and Syria. “And we are fighting against Iran, which last week fired over 200 ballistic missiles directly at Israel and which stands behind this seven-front war against Israel” Netanyahu said. Many Israeli analysts define the ongoing war as a confrontation between Israel and the “octopus” controlled by Iran. This refers to the system of alliances that Tehran has woven throughout the Middle East and which has as its final objectives the neutralization of Israel and Iranian supremacy within the Arab-Muslim world, in particular to the detriment of some of the Sunni monarchies, starting with Saudi Arabia, which in fact accept the existence and the continued existence of Israel in the region and which before October 7 had begun a silent path of political rapprochement with the Jewish state. A process that has entered a stand-by
phase since the bloody Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip generated a massive mobilization by major segments of the Arab and Muslim populations of the Middle East. In the last 12 months we have had confirmation of how the Palestinian question is still capable of mobilizing millions of people throughout the world, something that Arab governments willing to get closer to Israel must consider. Iran, for its part, is trying to ride this feeling of protest, occupying the space left empty by the Sunni countries and thus positioning itself as the major political interpreter of the widespread hostile sentiments towards Israel. At the same time, Tehran is proving to be the state most determined to militarily fight the Jewish state. Its military commitment pre-exists October 7, 2023 and has developed over the last thirty years. The Iranian state finances, trains and supports political-military movements spread throughout the region that over the years have become its real proxies that represent its interests on the ground and that are determined to fight the Jewish state from the territories in which they are rooted. This is the “octopus” that Israeli analysts have spoken of, and that Israel wants to destroy. In its ongoing military offensive, the Jewish state is trying to uproot these actors from the territories in which they are rooted and to neutralize them so that they can no longer represent a threat to its national security. If necessary, Israel is willing to destroy the structures and hierarchies of its enemies, without even excluding the possibility of encouraging massive population movements where its enemies are most deeply rooted to distance possible threats from its borders.
Preamble
Over the past few years, I have traveled extensively for professional reasons, as a journalist and geopolitical analyst, to various countries in the Middle East, in some of which I have stayed for extended periods and to which I have constantly returned. In some of them, I have lived in close contact with populations and organizations linked to Iran and strongly influenced by it. I have spent much of my time in Lebanon and Syria, where I have been able to observe the progressive growth of Iranian influence and the increasing repressive and bombing activity carried out by Israel against them. An activity that did not begin after October 7, 2023, but which had already been underway for at least several years before. In Lebanon, it has manifested itself concretely since at least 2006, with the entry of Israeli troops into the Country of the Cedars to fight Hezbollah. In Syria, it began to be tangible at the outbreak of the civil war in 2011, when the Jewish state began to support numerous anti-government armed groups operating in the southern territories of Syria, close to the Golan Heights and who in turn fought against pro-government armed groups loyal to Iran. The military success of the latter favored their territorial rooting and the creation of welfare structures on site that became vital to the survival of the local popu-
lation. In the following years, the IDF launched a constant campaign of targeted bombings to eradicate the presence of these groups and thus cut the growing ties of dependence between them and the population. These bombings began to target mainly weapons, ammunition and equipment depots, transit lanes and, finally, they began to hit Iranian leaders who were in Syria at the time. These are missile campaigns that have been constantly ongoing for at least eight years, from 2017 until today, but which have rarely found an echo in the Western media until the bombing of the Iranian Consulate in Damascus on April 1, 2024, which instead received wide media coverage. In this paper I will share my reports written in recent months from the territories of both Lebanon and Syria bordering Israel, where I was able to witness the activities of the IDF. In Syria through the bombing campaigns, in Lebanon by witnessing first-hand the activities of the Israeli infantry while fighting Hezbollah. The aim of this work is to provide geopolitical analysts with direct, unfiltered and independent testimonies from a reporter without political affiliations interested in understanding more deeply the dynamics that are upsetting the Middle East.
The rooting of pro-Iranian groups in Syria, in the territories bordering the Golan Heights
Damascus, July 2024
The arid Syrian countryside at the foot of the Golan Heights is an endless expanse of brown earth covered with brown rubble and destroyed and abandoned houses. The silence is absolute, there is not a soul around. On the horizon you can see the Golan rising: high bare mountains on whose peaks stand the antennas of numerous Israeli military bases that observe Syria from there. Suddenly the silence is shattered by a loud explosion. “They are the Jews,” says a Syrian soldier stationed among the rubble as he looks up, “from up there they bomb the positions of Iran and its allies every day.” The Golan Heights is an immense plateau of 1,860 square kilometers squeezed between Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan. De iure it belongs to Syria, but a large part of it is occupied by Israel which in 1967 wrested it from the control of Damascus. Since then, it has become a vital military platform for the Jewish state: from there, starting in 2011, its soldiers have observed the fighting of the Syrian civil war from above, providing at certain stages weapons and logistical aid to armed groups fighting against the government of Bashar Assad; from there, for years now, hundreds of missiles have regularly
taken off, hitting Iranian soldiers and their loyal armed groups present in Syria. Starting from October 7, 2023, Israel has extended these bombings to other territories: mainly Lebanon, where every day it targets Hezbollah, the political-military movement linked to Iran that in turn shoots towards Israeli territories. Today the Golan is the base from which the Jewish state fights a static but bloody war that involves the entire Middle East, bombing Iranian soldiers, the leaders of armed movements loyal to Tehran and their troops scattered throughout the region. Syria is the epicenter. The rubble at the foot of the plateau is all that remains of Quneitra, a town razed to the ground by Israel in 1974 and never rebuilt or repopulated since then. The only movements are those of a few Syrian soldiers who, positioned among the destruction, look towards the heights. From below one feels observed, vulnerable. The air echoes from time to time with explosions and Israeli drones buzzing in the sky. The soldiers don’t seem worried, though. “They’re not shooting here,” one of them comments. “The Iranians and Hezbollah are a few kilometers behind. They’re the ones in the crosshairs.”
The Shiite International
In recent decades, Iran has emerged as the regional player most determined to fight Israel. An ally of Syria, its government finances, arms and trains Shiite political-military movements around the world, the branch of Islam that Tehran is inspired by: Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Kateab Hezbollah in Iraq, Fatemiyoun in Afghanistan, Zainebiyoun in Pakistan. During the Syrian civil war all these groups settled in Syria, where the Shiites are a religious minority equal to 1% of the population and where there were already indigenous armed groups loyal to Tehran. Here, under the supervision of the Iranian military who arrived there, they fought against the armed and sometimes terrorist groups hostile to the government of Damascus. After the war ended (since 2020, armed clashes have significantly decreased and are limited to limited areas), the Shiite fighters have remained in the country and have taken root in various regions, some of which are close to Israel. Fearing that they might open a new front, the Jewish state regularly targets them. These are generally surgical raids that hit specific targets: Iranian high military and religious hierarchies, weapons and missile depots, troops. The destruction of the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1st caused a great deal of commotion. Today, all that remains is a huge pile of dusty rubble. To meet the Shiite fighters, you must leave the Golan behind you and take the road that leads east, towards the Syrian capital. Along the way, you will come across military bases flying large flags of Russia, the other major ally of the Syrian government. Its soldiers are now well present along the border with the Israeli territories, the Shiite ones have instead moved back
a few kilometers so as not to be easy victims of rockets fired from the heights and to avoid attracting too heavy bombings on Syria. Approaching the capital, one passes a last Syrian army checkpoint and enters a wide avenue lined with large posters depicting the Shiite political and religious leaders: the head of Hezbollah Hasan Nasrallah, the supreme guides of Iran Ruhollah Khomeini and Ali Khamanei, the recently deceased Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, the military leader Qasem Soleimani. Here and there, Iranian flags are waving. All around, massive buildings stand, some unkempt, others new or under construction. “The Iranians are investing a lot in construction in these parts,” says Ali, 37, a Syrian Shiite fighter who lives here, “they buy land and build mostly houses, infrastructure and large hotels to host soldiers and pilgrims. Which are often the same thing.” This road is one of the arteries of a strip of land that starts from the town of Bab Bila to reach the gates of the Damascus airport and which is under strong Iranian influence. It is in fact controlled by Al Asadeka, a sort of large coalition of various Shiite armed groups from all over the world allied with the Syrian government and led by Iran: Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis. On the road you come across groups of boys with uniforms different from those of the regular troops: dressed completely in black, they wear patches and yellow or green ribbons that recite religious verses, and they carry Kalashnikovs on their shoulders. Some have almond-shaped eyes and olive skin, they come from Central Asia. In addition to them, you can also see many children and large groups of Shiite women with their heads covered, dressed entirely in black. “90% are not Syrian,” Ali comments. “They are wives of fighters or are here on a pilgrimage.”
From the war against ISIS to the fight against Israel
The reasons that push so many Shiites to concentrate in this strip of land are military, social and religious. At the center of the strip is the imposing Sayyddah Zaynab mosque, which houses the remains of Zaynab, the granddaughter of Mohammed venerated by the Shiites as a saint. With the start of the Syrian civil war, thousands of them began to settle from all over Syria in the areas adjacent to her tomb, where they found assistance and protection from the persecution of some anti-government armed groups, including ISIS, determined to erase the presence of religious minorities in the country. Ali remembers the first days of the conflict well. He is originally from Dara’a, a region bordering Jordan and Israel that in 2011 was overwhelmed by large anti-Assad demonstrations. “Initially, we Shiites did not take sides, but the protests were gradually dominated by extremist groups calling for the extermination of minorities,” he says. “Some of their groups began to attack our communities, kidnapping or killing many of us. The Syrian army was too weak and could not protect us.” It was at that stage that Shiite fighters began to arrive from abroad, who acted as defense forces for their Syrian co-religionists. The first were the Lebanese Hezbollah, who quickly created their own detachment in Syria, called “Syrian Hezbollah,” which Ali joined. “They took us to Lebanon where we received military training. Then we returned to Dara’a to fight.” For years, Ali fought in his homeland against anti-Assad groups who, he says, received money and aid from neighboring Jordan and had many foreigners among their ranks. Over time, he began to be joined by Iranian, Iraqi and Afghan fighters, all controlled by Tehran. However, in 2015 his city fell to the enemy and he took refuge in Sayddah Zaynab. “The Syrian go-
vernment had made a deal with Iran that allowed it to deploy its loyal troops around the mosque and invest heavily in the surrounding areas. This attracted Shiites from all over the country who find support and protection here.” This deal has never been rescinded. Those who settle in these areas still become part of a welfare system that guarantees housing, benefits, education and a greater chance of finding work. Shiite soldiers also receive salaries from Iran that can be up to ten times higher than those of regular soldiers. Thus, a large part of the Syrian Shiite population has gradually concentrated in this strip, where today it coexists with the foreign fighters who remained in the country, with the thousands of pilgrims who come from all over the world to venerate Zaynab and with the Iranian political and religious leaders who have settled here and who consider Israel their great enemy. Therefore, in recent months, this territory has been repeatedly hit by missiles from the Jewish state.
Despite the Israeli bombings on Syria and the entire Middle East, Iran and its loyal troops have never fired on the Jewish State from Syrian territory, as they do from neighboring Lebanon. This is due to both humanitarian and geopolitical reasons: from a humanitarian point of view, Syrians have been starving from years of civil war (never finally concluded), natural disasters and economic crisis, the latter linked to the effect of Western sanctions against the country. According to Unicef, 90% of the population is reduced to poverty, almost half of the health centers are not functioning, 5.9 million people need nutritional support, 13.6 million need water and sanitation. Dragging Syria into a new major direct conflict would be lethal for too many, as
well as unpopular. In this context, Tehran’s aid is a breath of fresh air and survival for many Syrians. Without shooting, the Iranians are thus deeply rooting themselves in the military and social fabric of the country, concentrating their welfare mainly around Sayddah Zaynab and instead establishing their military presence in a patchy way in many areas of the country: from Damascus to Aleppo, passing through the deserts on the border with Iraq to the disputed region of Idlib. Here, along the line of contact with the territories controlled by the anti-Assad groups, it is not uncommon to see trenches with Iranian flags flying. Tehran is therefore laying the foundations for its own perpetual presence in the country. If it were to order it, the Shiite fighters in Syria would be at the front line in opening a new front against the Jewish state. So far, this has not
happened for geopolitical reasons: in recent years, some Arab countries allied with the West, such as Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Jordan, have reactivated their political ties with Damascus (previously cut with the outbreak of the civil war in 2011, when they supported and armed the opposition). Interested in restoring trade with Syria, their governments are trying to convince Western ones to remove economic sanctions, thus loosening the grip that is starving the population. A plan, this, that would fail if Iran dragged Syria into a frontal war against Israel, the main ally of the West in the region. The troops loyal to Tehran therefore avoid attacking but continue to be hit by the bombings of the Jewish state. Many of which start from the Golan.
On the peaks of the Golan
Walking through the rubble of Quneitra, you come to a long wall of barbed wire that marks the end of the territories in Syrian hands. Behind it, the brown earth gives way to green cultivated fields and long rows of wind turbines that supply energy to the Jewish state. Israeli drones buzz around, piloted, most likely, from bases on the peaks behind them. Of the 1,860 square kilometers of the Golan, 600 are still in Syrian hands. To climb them, you travel deserted and winding roads that, flanked by trenches, climb up the mountains. Once at the top, you come across barbed wire again, behind which, a few dozen meters away, begins Majdal Shams, the first center in Israeli hands surrounded by military bases of
the Jewish state. Along this border walks Sleiman, a man with wrinkled, olive skin who grazes goats here. Leaning on a stick and protecting his face from the sun with a red kuffiah, he says that shepherds like him are occasionally approached by Israeli soldiers who ask for information on the presence of Iranians. As he speaks, explosions continue to reverberate in the sky. A few days later, a missile fired probably from Lebanon will fall on Majdal Shams, killing 12 children. Israel will respond with yet another campaign of bombings and targeted killings throughout the region. Thus continuing this static war that risks degenerating into an escalation at any moment.
Southern Lebanon, on the frontline between Israel and Hezbollah
Rmeich (Southern Lebanon), October 2024
“We are fine, we are in the bunkers. I can’t say more, now please go away.” The Ghanaian soldier who forcefully invites us to move away from the entrance to the Unifil base in Rmeich is wearing a bulletproof vest and a blue helmet. Behind him, beyond the lookout tower, there is a hill with a large cross planted on its top. Suddenly the silence is broken by a strong burst of machine gun fire. It is very close. At the foot of the hill,
just over a kilometer from the base, the battle for Ayta El Cheab, a Shiite village and Hezbollah stronghold, is being fought. After advancing through the countryside and surrounding the urban center, the Israeli infantry is launching the assault. Supported by low-flying fighter bombs and artillery positioned a few kilometers back, his soldiers are engaged in a man-to-man battle against those of the Party of God. A few minutes
later, a few meters from the cross on the hill, two rockets rain down from the sky. Two clouds of thick black smoke rise into the sky.
Similar battles are underway along this entire part of the border between Lebanon and Israel. After a year of mutual bombing between the IDF and Hezbollah, Israeli soldiers are trying to eradicate the presence of Iranian-backed paramilitaries with incursions on the ground: starting from Israel, they cross the border into Lebanon
and clash head-on with the Shiite militiamen who, entrenched in tunnels and fortifications, try to repel the attacks and in turn launch hundreds of missiles towards the Jewish state. The fighting is taking place in Maroun El Ras, Yaroun and Ayataroun, villages now deserted and gutted by bombs.
The only one to be spared from the fighting is Rmeich, a Christian village transformed into an enclave surrounded by war, isolated from the rest
of the country. The Unifil base at the entrance to the village hosts a handful of blue helmets from Ghana who are rarely seen outside. Tensions are high, especially after three days ago when Israeli tanks broke through the entrance to another base in Ramyah, 12 kilometers to the east, also run by the Ghanaians.
The only way to reach Rmeich is to join a convoy that, escorted by the Lebanese army, crosses the combat zones carrying food and basic necessities. The road is completely deserted and, crossing the hills, it passes ghostly villages where, until before the invasion, Hezbollah was deeply rooted. Today they are completely deserted, some intact, others largely demolished: buildings razed to the ground, burned cars, large craters, carcasses of Lebanese ambulances destroyed by missiles. Large billboards praising Nasrallah and other Shiite leaders are hanging everywhere. Here, shots from the Israeli army rain down every day, from here the Hezbollah militiamen shoot towards the Jewish state. Around us, we hear the dry explosions of the outgoing rockets from the countryside. Suddenly, after turning a bend, we come across an enormous cloud of thick black smoke that spreads into the sky. As we get closer to the border with Israel, the road is increasingly covered in rubble. After having a flat tire, we are forced to advance slowly. Alongside us, we hear the increasingly clear and constant rustling of outgoing shots. When the hills of the Jewish state begin to appear on the horizon, the symbols of Hezbollah disappear along the edges of the road, giving way to crosses, statues of the Madonna and flags of the Christian parties of Lebanon. The last two villages before the start of Israel are inhabited by Christians. Here, Hezbollah does not enter.
The first is Ain Ebel and has been uninhabited since, a few days ago, its inhabitants fled to nearby Rmeich: this is instead a block of light
stone houses located on a plain surrounded by hills: to the south the Israeli ones, to the north-east and west the Lebanese ones where fierce battles are underway.
Rmeich is a surreal town: a peaceful place surrounded by air and land combat. Inside, life flows apparently calmly: children play in the street, groups of women chat while sitting outside, young men walk in groups, some bars and shops are open, the priest celebrates mass in a church full of faithful. The loud buzz of an Israeli drone flying in the sky accompanies every moment of their lives. Day and night. Almost every minute the silence is interrupted by bursts of gunfire, gunshots and very strong explosions, some distant, others that shake windows and walls. The roar of missiles and fighters flying at low altitude is constant. Clouds of successful shots continually rise over the surrounding hills.
“Last night we heard the creaking of Israeli tanks moving through the village and advancing towards Ayta El Cheab,” says Victoria, a middle-aged woman who lives on the border of the village. “But so far we have never seen an Israeli soldier or a Hezbollah soldier.”
The latter, everyone in the village says, hide in underground tunnels in the countryside from which they emerge to attack the advancing enemy. The IDF soldiers, on the other hand, have not yet tried to familiarize themselves with the local population or enter the Christian areas. It is a war in which those who fight it seem invisible.
Imad Lallous, the mayor of Ain Ebel who has now taken refuge in Rmeich, tells us about the origins of this alienating situation. “Since the Israelis entered Lebanon, we have been living isolated in an enclave. The war, however, has been going on here for a year, since the day after October 7, 2023, when Hezbollah began shooting
at Israel. Since then, every night our men have patrolled the village to prevent Hezbollah men from entering the village and shooting at Israel from our homes. This would provoke the Israeli response with bombings that would pulverize us. This is not our war and we Christians do not want to take part in it. We are collateral victims.”
Ain Ebel and Rmeich were thus spared from the missiles and life inside them continued, unlike the surrounding Shiite villages that were now empty and pulverized. After the Israeli invasion, however, Lallous received a phone call from the Israelis who ordered him to quickly evacuate the
village. “They claimed that Hezbollah was very close to us and that to bomb it they could hit our homes. We did not want to leave but it had become too dangerous.” So many of the inhabitants moved to Rmeich and now live together with 5000 other civilians who remained. Up to now Ain Ebel has almost not been bombed, but returning would be too dangerous.
In Rmeich, however, life continues to flow normally, surreal. Isolated and surrounded by a bloody war. Where, however, no one has ever seen a fighter.
Author:
Luca Steinmann is a freelance journalist, war reporter, university lecturer and geopolitical analyst. After graduating in political sciences and getting a masters in geopolitics and intelligence he worked for the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs from Bern and Singapore.
In the last 10 years Luca has been covering several wars and crisis in different regions, among them in the Middle East, Asia, the Balkans, the Caucasus as well as Russian and Ukraine. His reports and interviews have appeared on several media in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, USA.
In Italy he has been awarded with several journalistic awards, among them the Premiolino for his reporting from Donbass, Ukraine.
