Israel’s war on Lebanon: What exactly is the ‘Dahieh Doctrine’?

Israel has scaled up its war on Lebanon, killing more than 1,500 people and displacing over one million.  

Air strikes have destroyed civilian infrastructure, including homes, mosques, hospitals and key crossings over the Litani River in Lebanon’s south.

Beirut’s southern suburbs, known colloquially as Dahieh, have also been heavily targeted. That’s significant because this residential area was where the Israeli military first used the “Dahieh Doctrine” two decades ago.

Since then, the Israeli military has repeatedly and systemically applied the strategy, most notably with its genocide in Gaza from October 2023 onwards, where more than 72,000 people have been killed to date.

At the beginning of the current war, on 5 March, Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right minister of finance of Israel, said in a video posted to X, “very soon Dahieh will look like Khan Younis”, the devastated city in the south of the Gaza strip. 

Here, Middle East Eye examines the controversial Israeli military tactic.

What are the origins of the Dahieh Doctrine?

The Dahieh Doctrine advocates the use of disproportionate force against civilians and civilian infrastructure in areas where armed groups are alleged to operate.

It seeks to inflict suffering on civilian populations in order to create popular discontent against the group that triggered the assault, be it Hezbollah in Lebanon or Hamas in Gaza, and thus deter future attacks against Israel. 

Dahieh, to the south of Beirut, is a densely populated area whose residents are overwhelmingly Shia, although other Lebanese also live here. The neighbourhood includes many Hezbollah supporters and voters, as well as members of the party.

Some, such as US economist Paul Krugman writing in 2006, have suggested that the doctrine was inspired by the “shock and awe” strategy used during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The term, devised by military writers Harlan K Ullman and James P Wade in 1996, advocates overwhelming power and displays of force to overwhelm and startle the enemy and its civilian population. 

This, it suggests, would involve disruption of “means of communication, transportation, food production, water supply, and other aspects of infrastructure” within enemy territories.  

More than 6,700 Iraqi civilians were killed in the initial US invasion, while the total number of civilians killed throughout the subsequent conflict is estimated to be at least 200,000.

Earlier historic cases of shock and awe tactics cited by Ulman and Wade also include the US nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in 1945, and the Russian invasion of Grozny during the First Chechen War in 1994.

What is the wording of the Dahieh Doctrine?

There is no official public documentation of the doctrine. Rather, it was first detailed by Israeli military officials and analysts following Israel’s 2006 war on Lebanon.

During the invasion, the Israeli military said that it had the right to undertake widespread attacks on Lebanon following Hezbollah’s kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.

Israeli military General Udi Adam, who led the operation against Hezbollah, said in July 2006: “Where to attack? Once it is inside Lebanon, everything is legitimate – not just southern Lebanon, not just the line of Hezbollah posts.”

During the 33-day war, Israel killed over 1,200 people and wounded over 4,400 others. The onslaught was at its worst in Dahieh, where more than 15,000 homes were destroyed by Israeli bombing. 

General Gadi Eisenkot served as the Israeli head of operations during the assault. Later, he was appointed chief of staff of the Israeli military (2015-2019) and as a minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet (2023-2024).

Eisenkot said in October 2008, two years after the end of the war: “What happened in the Dahieh quarter of Beirut will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on.

“We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases. This isn't a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorized.”

That same week, Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies published a report by Israeli colonel Gabriel Siboni called “Disproportionate Force: Israel's Concept of Response in Light of the Second Lebanon War”.

It argued that “with an outbreak of hostilities, the IDF [Israeli military] will need to act immediately, decisively, and with force that is disproportionate to the enemy's actions and the threat it poses.

“Such a response aims at inflicting damage and meting out punishment to an extent that will demand long and expensive reconstruction processes.”

The report added that Israel “will have to respond disproportionately in order to make it abundantly clear that the State of Israel will accept no attempt to disrupt the calm currently prevailing along its borders”. 

When else has Israel applied the doctrine?

Israel has frequently used disproportionate force against civilians in the Palestinian territories, which it has occupied since 1967 in contravention of international law. 

In Gaza, aside from the high cost to human life, Israel has destroyed around 80 percent of all buildings, according to the United Nations Satellite Centre, including homes, schools, hospitals, sewage treatment facilities and markets. 

On 10 October 2023, only three days into Israel’s campaign, military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “While balancing accuracy with the scope of damage, right now we're focused on what causes maximum damage.” 

As the war widened, Israel subsequently renewed its attacks on Dahieh itself. 

In previous wars on Gaza, Israel heavily targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure. 

During its 2008-9 invasion, Israel killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, destroyed more than 4,000 homes and used white phosphorus munitions, which can cause severe and fatal burns, within civilian areas. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the conflict. 

In 2014, Israel again attacked Gaza, killing more than 2,250 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were believed to have been civilians, including over 500 children and nearly 300 women.

Is the doctrine legal under international law?

Targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure are expressly prohibited as war crimes under the foundational treaties of international law. 

Article 48 of the Fourth Geneva Convention stipulates: “The Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants”.

And Article 51 prohibits attacks “which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated”.

The Rome Statute, which establishes in international law the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression, also prohibits attacks on civilians. 

The Statute forbids “intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated.”

Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the former minister of defence of Israel, face arrest warrants at the International Criminal Court over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Israel’s genocide in Gaza. 

What have international experts said?

The Dahieh Doctrine was explicitly identified by The Goldstone Report, a UN fact-finding commission on the 2008-9 Gaza War.

It found that Israeli strategy during the conflict was “designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population” and added:

“The tactics used by the Israeli armed forces in the Gaza offensive are consistent with previous practices, most recently during the Lebanon war in 2006. A concept known as the Dahiya doctrine emerged then, involving the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations. The Mission concludes from a review of the facts on the ground that it witnessed for itself that what was prescribed as the best strategy appears to have been precisely what was put into practice.” 

The doctrine has also been criticised by international experts, including Richard Falk, a former UN special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights.

He wrote in April 2024, six months into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, that there was not “the slightest effort on Eisenkot’s part to reconcile the Dahiya Doctrine with international humanitarian law, which imposes a limit of proportionality on any use of force in situations of international combat”.