Escalating conflict: Baalbek shelling and Lebanon's political challenges

Lebanon witnessed an unprecedented escalation at the beginning of this week, manifested by the Israeli enemy's shelling of the Baalbek area, marking the third time that an area outside the geographical scope of the south has been targeted.

This article was initially published and translated from the Lebanese online newspaper Al-Anbaa.

This follows the attacks in the southern suburbs and Jadra since the beginning of the aggression on the eighth of October, indicating that the imposed constraints have not been considered and are likely to be ignored.

The shelling of Baalbek came after the downing of an Israeli "Hermes" drone by Hezbollah with a surface-to-air missile; thus, the quality of the targeting and its geographical scope has evolved in recent days, with the continuation of the assassinations carried out by Israel, the latest of which targeted a Hezbollah leader in Mjadel.

Hezbollah responded to the Baalbek targeting, but at the same time, it maintained the same level of conflict, targeting the enemy army's headquarters in the occupied Golan Heights with 60 Katyusha rockets, in addition to the mutual shelling that occurred at the southern borders.

In a related context, security sources told "Al-Anbaa" expected the continuation of field confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel before the truce agreement, which was announced to have been reached between Hamas and Israel and is for six weeks.

The agreement is expected to be implemented before the advent of Ramadan, which is likely to result in the release of more than two hundred Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of some of the Israeli detainees held by Hamas.

The sources pointed out that "the field confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel may witness an unprecedented escalation in an overt attempt by the enemy to inflict the greatest possible damage against Lebanon.

However, Hezbollah insists on not allowing matters to deviate from the rules of engagement and contenting itself with responding in kind to Israeli attacks, but that does not negate the readiness of the party to respond to these attacks.

In the local political arena, within the framework of the presidential initiative undertaken by the National Moderation Bloc and its meetings with parliamentary blocs, Bloc member MP Ahmad Kheir stated in an interview with "Al-Anbaa" that the initiative focuses on three points:

Firstly, the MPs converge to a consultative meeting under the dome of parliament, with representatives from all parliamentary blocs attending, provided that the attendance does not fall below two-thirds, i.e., 86 MPs and that this meeting has neither a president nor a chairperson, as it is merely a consultative meeting.

Secondly, the leading names nominated for the presidency should be discussed to agree on the name of the acceptable candidate.

Thirdly, informing the Speaker of Parliament of what has been agreed upon and requesting him to convene an open session to elect the future president.

In this context, Kheir quoted Speaker Nabih Berri as promising to send two MPs from the "Development and Liberation" bloc to attend the consultative meeting, considering it "a very positive sign."

Therefore, the internal challenge now focuses on the success of the National Moderation Bloc's initiative amidst the prevailing deadlock in the political situation.

In addition, it focuses on Hezbollah's avoidance of expanding the conflict along the Lebanese borders and on the wisdom of those concerned to avoid war and elect a president.