As war on Gaza passes 100 days, Lebanon faces the unknown

With the Israeli war on Gaza entering its 100th day, the fear of a full-scale escalation with Hezbollah is growing each day in Lebanon. 

Tensions have been building up steadily in the south of the country since 7 October, but things took a turn for the worse earlier this month when Beirut was struck. 

A suspected Israeli air strike killed senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in the Lebanese capital, an aggression labelled a red line by Hezbollah. Anticipating a forceful response from the group, a tense atmosphere now fills the city.  

"Until the al-Arouri assassination, the war was taking place in the south, with people dying every day, [but] the rest of Lebanon was pretty much oblivious," Randa Slim, senior analyst at the Washington-based Middle East Institute think tank, told Middle East Eye.

"The Arouri assassination in Beirut brought it home. Then, the mood shifted."

Read more: As war on Gaza passes 100 days, Lebanon faces the unknown