South Lebanon: The War That Never Ends?

This article profiles the low-grade war being waged in south Lebanon's "security zone," the last hot spot of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Depopulated by war and occupation, virtually cut off from the rest of Lebanon, the narrow strip of land hosts an array of protagonists -- UN observers, Israeli soldiers and their proxies, Hizballah, and even a remnant of Lebanese army and police. Caught in between, the population in this zone of moral ambiguities and paradoxes, absurdities and anomalies, is forced to make the compromises necessary to survive.

David Hirst, veteran Middle East correspondent of the London Guardian, is the author of a number of books, including The Gun and the Olive Branch (London: Faber and Faber, 1997).