The latest clash between Israeli and Lebanese forces has highlighted the tense standoff between Israel and Hezbollah, with tensions running so high that Hezbollah’s leader even urged his fighters to kill the Israeli soldiers that killed two of his members in an incident earlier this week. But this isn’t the first time that Hezbollah and Israeli troops have fought on a border.
Last June, a violent skirmish in the Galwan Valley between Indian and Chinese soldiers on both sides of the 2,100-mile-long disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC) killed 20 Indian and four Chinese troops. It was the worst clash in years, and it comes amid a disturbing trend of escalation between the world’s two most populous nations.
In the months since, Indian and Chinese military forces have been engaged in face-offs, aggressive melees, and skirmishes at locations around the disputed Himalayan border. The clashes are part of a growing confrontation between the world’s largest democracies over their respective territorial claims and strategic interests in a region that also involves the United States.
In response to the Galwan Valley clash, India has accused China of violating agreements and seeking to alter the LAC. But as Newsweek’s analysis of a new video shows, the conflict’s origins are much more complicated than that single assertion might suggest. Regardless of the cause of the clash, it serves as a reminder that the LAC remains volatile — and that India-China ties are at a critical turning point for global stability.