The Press in Israel | The Israeli army on the alert against Hezbollah

(Metula and Kiryat Shmona) Despite the daily bombardments, the IDF and Hezbollah are still trying to prevent escalation. On the front line, on the Israeli side, soldiers believe that an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon is increasingly likely.

The command room of the 71^e brigade of the Israeli army is on alert. “A suspicious shape has been spotted in a building in the enemy village, on the other side of the border. We will shoot,” announces Major Davidi, one of the commanders of the battalion charged with defending Metula, the northernmost village in Israel, against the threat of Hezbollah. Yuval, one of his deputies, is busy in front of his computer screen and displays the video feed of a drone flying at high altitude.

The young officer must choose from the impressive arsenal at his disposal: snipers, guided rockets, cannons, artillery, tanks, drones or bombs dropped by the air force. He notes the coordinates of the target, then transmits them on an internal messaging system. The order to fire is given. Mortar shells shatter the enemy building. Hezbollah’s response comes ten minutes later in the form of two anti-tank missiles, which crash with a crash a few hundred meters further away.

Major Davidi puts on his bulletproof vest and helmet, grabs his assault rifle, then goes out to inspect the positions of his soldiers sent into the town. Metula, surrounded by three Lebanese villages, is a shadow of its former self: since Hezbollah opened a “solidarity” front with Gaza on October 8, two-thirds of the homes have been gutted by bombs.

Like 80,000 other Israelis living near the Land of the Cedars, its residents have been evacuated to the interior of the country. “Several hundred elite Hezbollah fighters are positioned in the vicinity and could invade the village to carry out an October 7-type attack. Our mission is to dissuade them,” Davidi explains, greeting a group of soldiers sheltering behind huge reinforced concrete walls.

Rise of Hezbollah

The technological superiority of the IDF, so overwhelming against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, appears more relative here. “Hezbollah has Iran’s military means. It is a different beast from Hamas, more intelligent and experienced, having cut its teeth during the Syrian civil war. Their attacks are as formidable as they are studied. They should not be underestimated,” concludes Davidi, whose battalion spent five months fighting in the Gaza Strip after October 7.

The firepower of the Shiite militia is spread across the region. Kiryat Shmona, a large town located a few kilometers from Metula, has also been evacuated. Along its deserted streets, one sees pulverized cars, buildings riddled with bullet holes, and charred trees. Despite the effectiveness of Israeli anti-aircraft defenses, the town is regularly hit by heavy “Burkan” rockets, Iranian-made warheads that can carry up to 500 kg of explosives.

More than 1,300 rockets were fired by Hezbollah towards Israel in August, a record since October 7, 2023.

“Twenty years ago, Hezbollah only bombed the city with Katyushas, ​​small Soviet rockets. Today, it’s much more dangerous. This situation has gone on long enough. People are losing patience, they want to go back home,” complains Boris, one of the few residents still there. This sixty-year-old draws a parallel with the 2006 war, during which the city of Kiryat Shmona was bombed by Hezbollah for 34 days. Israel ended up invading southern Lebanon to neutralize the threat.

“The attack plans are ready”

Will it be the same this time? In recent days, the Israeli press has been buzzing with talk of an IDF ground operation in southern Lebanon in the event of a failure of negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza. Many residents of Kiryat Shmona are campaigning for such an operation, even though Hezbollah’s arsenal of rockets and missiles has increased tenfold since the 2006 war.

“The overwhelming majority of people will not accept returning home if Hezbollah continues to rule the border in this way. The political pressure for a ground invasion is growing. But it can only happen with the green light from the United States, after the presidential election in November,” said Eilan Oran, a farmer from Kiryat Shmona whose orchards stretch less than 20 meters from the border.

But it is not yet time for escalation. Eilan Oran, like many other farmers in the region, continues to plow his fields, right in front of Hezbollah snipers.

“We see here that Hezbollah is disciplined. They take their orders from Tehran and, until then, the mullahs want to show restraint,” says Eilan Oran.

In the heights of the Upper Galilee, between two pine forests ravaged by flames, high-ranking Israeli officers responsible for the northern front are nevertheless preparing for the worst-case scenario.

“Unless there is a diplomatic miracle, my feeling is that we are going to have to go into Lebanon to enforce UN Resolution 1701. [voté en 2006, mais resté en partie lettre morte, le texte exige le retrait du Hezbollah au nord du fleuve Litani, à 30 km de la frontière] “We are ready to attack,” said a brigadier from an observation point overlooking the Lebanese border. “Our forces have been training for months. The attack plans are ready. We are ready to launch an assault.”