Identity, anxiety, and war: Hezbollah and the Gaza tragedy

This study explores Hezbollah’s puzzling engagement in Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza. Why has it limited its war to the Lebanese-Israeli border area? Why did not it engage in a full-scale combat akin to the 2006 war with Israel? Why did the movement, despite all the domestic and regional constraints it faced, enter war on 8 October? Drawing on Ontological Security Theory (OST) and primary data, the article finds that Hezbollah faced a predicament: if it abstained from supporting its Palestinian allies, it would threaten its ontological security (core being, reputation, and role as a resistance movement); conversely if it engaged in extensive warfare, it would endanger its physical security. To address this predicament, Hezbollah engaged in constrained warfare that aimed to restore its ontological security and preserve the cohesion and survival of the regional Axis of Resistance. The study argues that, in this way, Hezbollah was also constructing the future.