Why the Israel-Hezbollah conflict hasn't escalated to war despite daily violence

Hezbollah benefits from the rules of engagement, presenting itself as a 'resistance' force while avoiding full-on war with Israel, one expert said.

BEIRUT — Eight months of unbridled war, widespread death, destruction and suffering in Gaza have captured the world’s attention. But across its northern border with Lebanon, Israel has also been engaged in a much more subdued conflict with a different Iran-backed militia. 

This lower-level fighting — when compared to the combat in Gaza — has nevertheless led to lethal violence on an almost daily basis with regular rocket fire from Hezbollah and artillery and airstrikes from Israel. Hundreds of people have died and tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes on both sides of the border. 

In the past several weeks, the fighting has ratcheted up, with Hezbollah using increasingly sophisticated weapons to fire far deeper into Israel. On Wednesday it launched a massive barrage of rockets that the militant group’s Al-Manar TV station said was in retaliation for Israel’s killing of one of its commanders, Taleb Sami Abdullah.

Israel has been firing back with greater frequency, and its leadership has become increasingly bellicose, threatening to invade Lebanon once again and take Hezbollah head-on.

But this conflict comes with a built-in stopgap: Experts say the fighting has not exploded into an all-out war because of unique “rules of the game” that have governed the fighting between the two sides for almost three decades, restraining it for the most part but preserving the potential for a much more serious conflict.  

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/why-israel-hezbollah-conflict-hasnt-escalated-to-war-rcna148096

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