Here are some key facts about Lebanon.
The country
POPULATION: 4.2 million, including significant numbers of Palestinian refugees.
AREA: 10,452 square km (4,036 square miles). It is bordered to the south by Israel and to the north and east by Syria.
CAPITAL: Beirut. Population around 1.5 million.
RELIGION: Muslims make up around 65% of the population. Just over half of them are Shi'ites. There is a large Christian population, predominantly Catholic and Maronite but also Orthodox. There is a sizeable Druze minority.
ECONOMY: Lebanon's stock market has tumbled as the confrontation between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas choked the Lebanese economy and triggered hoarding of dollars.
Whether Lebanon, which is battling to reform its economy and cut the $US35 billion public debt that is almost twice its gross domestic product, can recover quickly from the effects of the confrontation depends on how long the latest violence lasts.
Recent timeline
August 1990 - Parliament enacts Taif Accord, which becomes Lebanon's new constitution, bringing an end to the country's civil war which killed some 150,000 people.
October 1992 - Lebanon holds first postwar elections. Rafik al-Hariri becomes prime minister.
May 2000 - Israel ends 22-year occupation of south Lebanon.
October 2000 - Hariri chosen prime minister again after popular discontent with economic slide.
June 2001 - Syria completes surprise pullout of its troops from Beirut and surrounding areas, ending decades of controversial military presence.
February 2005 - Hariri is killed by a bomb in Beirut. Two months later, under international pressure, Syria ends its 29-year military presence in Lebanon.
July 2006 - Israel strikes Lebanon after Hizbollah guerrillas abduct two Israeli soldiers, hitting infrastructure targets and killing more than 300 people.
What is at stake
Hizbollah's attack on Israel has widened splits between those
who praise the group's defiance of Israel and others angry that
Lebanese will end up paying the price.
With debilitating divisions between anti-Syrian politicians and
pro-Syrian Shi'ites dogging the government, analysts say a
prolonged confrontation with Israel could bring down the fragile
coalition.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has said that Israel has
inflicted billions of dollars of damage on his country's
infrastructure and is trying to set the country back 50 years.
