Two young fighters speak as Israelis and Lebanese mark ten years since war

(The Christian Science Monitor) Since the brutal 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah organization, which ended ten years ago on August 14, the border has enjoyed near-unprecedented calm.

Neither Israel nor Hezbollah seeks another war, both being wary that the scale of the next conflict could be far greater than in 2006.

But if war should break out, two potential adversaries are Abbas, a 24-year-old Shi’ite from southern Beirut, a member of Hezbollah who has been fighting in Syria’s civil war, and Elazar Symon, also 24, a Jerusalem native and a reservist in the Israeli army who saw action in the 2014 war in Gaza.