IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai attributes Nasrallah’s strategic positioning in heavy populated civilian areas & Hezbollah’s upgraded rocket & missile arsenal, major factors to the increased risk of Lebanese non-combatants in any future conflict.
“If a war breaks out with Hezbollah, a large number of non-combatants could be hurt because the group is deployed in civilian population centers,” Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai said Wednesday.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai. – Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit
Speaking at the Beersheba Chamber of Commerce Wednesday night, Mordechai also noted that during Operation Pillar of Defense in November, when the IDF unleashed an aerial bombardment campaign on Hamas to put a stop to rocket fire on southern Israel, the IDF received messages of support from citizens in Arab countries.
The Second Lebanon War broke out on July 12, 2006, when Hezbollah terrorists ambushed an IDF patrol along the border fence and abducted two soldiers. The war that raged until Aug. 14 that year saw thousands of rockets fired by Hezbollah at the Israeli homefront and the near decimation of Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon.
Some 1,200 Lebanese were killed during the 34-day conflict, including hundreds of Hezbollah terrorists. A total of 121 Israeli soldiers were killed in the war. Hezbollah trumpeted the war as a victory for their organization and resistance against “the Zionist entity.”
Hezbollah’s image has been tarnished lately due to the group’s involvement in the Syrian civil war on the side of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Two weeks ago Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that anyone who thinks Hezbollah is vulnerable because of Syria’s civil war is mistaken.
A Katyusha rocket explodes in Haifa, Aug. 12, 2006.
He said that the group had all the weapons it needed in case war broke out with Israel, and it would not need to import them from allies Syria and Iran.
“The resistance will not be silent regarding any aggression against Lebanon,” Nasrallah said. He added that Hezbollah had the capability to strike at Israel’s “ports, airports and power stations.”
“A few missiles would plunge Israel into darkness,” Nasrallah said, referring to plans to attack power stations. “Can Israel survive six months in the dark?”
Nasrallah threatened to carpet Israel in missiles “from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat,” referring to towns in Israel’s northern and southern extremes.
View original Israel Hayom publication at: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=7597
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