New military conflict between Israel and Hezbollah would follow 40 years of shadow war

Imad Mughniyeh, pictured on the left of this Beirut mural next to Hassan Nasrallah and Qassem Soleimani, was a key figure in the early days of Hezbollah. Photograph: Wael Hamzeh/EPA

For more than 40 years, a bloody and violent shadow war has raged between Israeli intelligence services and the Lebanon-based militant Shia Islamist organisation Hezbollah.

One of the earliest defeats for Israel came in November 1982, five months after its forces had invaded Lebanon set on the destruction of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, then based there. When the PLO’s armed fighters were forced to leave Beirut, it appeared Israel had won a major victory.