The Israeli military has been instructed to expand its operations in Lebanon, Defence Minister Israel Katz said, after Hezbollah fired a heavy barrage of rockets at the Jewish state overnight.
Katz warned Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that if his government could not prevent Hezbollah from attacking, “Israel would do it ourselves,” according to a statement from his office.
According to Breaking Defense.com, an online portal, the Israel Defense Force should have no difficulty in handling Iran and Lebanon, as it has long believed that a multi-front conflict was inevitable.
Breaking Defense quoted Yaakov Katz, author of a book on Israel’s raid on Syria’s nuclear program, who said, “The understanding in the IDF always was that in a war with Iran, Hezbollah would be involved. This has long been drilled and prepared for and is playing out now.”
But the pattern of Israeli strikes on Lebanon is different from the strikes on Iran. Breaking Defense says Israel has used 820 munitions on Lebanon so far since Mar 8, killing 190 members of Hezbollah. Iran has been hit with 5000 munitions during the first four days of the conflict alone.
The Lebanon fighting is seen as a border security engagement, while that with Iran involves air strikes, missiles, and drones.
“Hezbollah has been severely weakened since the last war,” Katz said, “and therefore will have a hard time doing real damage to Israel. The IDF can also fight on two fronts at the same time since, in Iran, the focus is on the air while in Lebanon it can be on the air war but also on the ground.”
There is even talk of the creation of a buffer zone in Lebanon. Israel plans to push Hezbollah at least eight kilometres from the Israeli border. Although this arrangement is not new, having been tried out for 15 years beginning in 1985, the deaths of 250 Israeli troops led to the end of the buffer.
The thinking is that once the war with Iran ends, Israel will deploy more troops and push Hezbollah further north towards the Bekaa Valley, about 60 km away.
(With inputs from Reuters)
