Arnold Kling opens The Era of Hostage States with this passage from YNET news:
The [Israeli Military] has found that Hizbullah is preventing civilians from leaving villages in southern Lebanon. Roadblocks have been set up outside some of the villages to prevent residents from leaving, while in other villages Hizbullah is preventing UN representatives from entering, who are trying to help residents leave. In two villages, exchanges of fire between residents and Hizbullah have broken out.
As he points out, “civilians often are used as human shields,” and “if Hezbollah were to follow the Geneva Convention, and differentiate its military operators from civilians,” its military operators would go up in a puff of smoke. It’s only Israeli restraint that keeps Hezbullah in the game.
Of course, we have to ask, are the Lebonese people innocent victims?
It is safe to assume that most Lebanese do not like what is happening to their country now. But up until recently, the Lebanese government seemed to have no objection to Hezbollah’s weapons arsenal and control over territory. Based on the actions of their elected government, one might infer that the Lebanese people were quite willing to tolerate a heavily armed, radical independent militia in their country.