Israel’s war with the Lebanese Hezbollah is imminent
In recent weeks it has become clear that a war with Hezbollah is inevitable. It is no longer a question of “if” but of “when”.
Hezbollah has attacked Israel every day since October 8, the day after Hamas’ devastating massacre, and has continued to do so every day since. The group has fired over 5,000 rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosive-laden drones toward the northern border, driving 60,000 Israelis in the north from their homes and turning them into displaced persons in their own country, with no end date for when they will be allowed to return home.
According to senior Israeli officials, the countdown to a possible war with Hezbollah has begun, and Israeli officials have said they have no other choice. For months, Israeli officials have told Hezbollah to withdraw or they will be forced to do so. Instead of resolving these issues diplomatically and allowing displaced Israelis to return home, Hezbollah has only intensified its attacks.
Iran’s terror proxy in Lebanon has made several threats against Israel in the last week alone. The first of these was a video that Hezbollah says is footage from a drone that entered Israeli airspace and documented several sensitive areas, including the port of Haifa, an Israeli naval base and, according to Hezbollah, strategic military sites across the northern border. The footage shows private homes as well as the locations of the Iron Dome and David’s Sling air defense systems.
Hezbollah’s message is clear: it is trying to scare the Israelis by pretending to already know the areas of Israel it will attack – a pure example of psychological warfare. Back in November, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed that the terrorist group had sent surveillance drones over Haifa.
A few days after the release of these drone images, Nasrallah again threatened Israel in a televised address. The terror leader said that “no place in Israel will be safe” if war breaks out. Nasrallah also threatened Cyprus and other parts of the Mediterranean.
That’s a lot of talk from an organization that Foreign Minister Israel Katz said would be destroyed in the event of “all-out war.” Israel has now been put in a position where it must decide whether to change the status quo. Many inside and outside Israel are concerned about the consequences of a full-scale war with Lebanon.
In fact, Israel has been preparing for such an attack since the October 7 attacks. Very early in the Gaza war, Israel was close to launching a preemptive strike against Hezbollah (as it did against Egypt in 1967).
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was ready to attack the unprepared Hezbollah around October 11, just days after the Hamas attack. However, the attack was called off at the last minute in the War Cabinet meeting. Former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot spoke out against a preemptive strike, saying such an attack would have been a “strategic mistake” and likely sparked a regional war.
The violation of international law and war crimes committed by Hezbollah have been met with absolute silence. Human rights groups, the International Criminal Court and world leaders have remained mostly silent on Hezbollah’s actions. It seems that those who are usually quick to condemn and demonize Israel have no interest in actually preventing a war in the region through diplomacy by denouncing and condemning Hezbollah’s aggression.
Unofficial declaration of war by Hezbollah
Hezbollah had declared war on Israel when it decided to defend Hamas in the Gaza Strip by firing at Israel and acting as a deterrent to Israel’s military campaign. Although Israel was unprepared for an attack like the one Hamas carried out in the south on October 7, it always knew that Hezbollah was ready and planning to commit atrocities of the same magnitude, including hostage-taking and the occupation of Israeli towns and villages.
The terror group can penetrate areas outside Israel’s evacuated areas and well beyond the northern borders into major central cities. Hezbollah has an Iranian Shiite fundamentalist agenda aimed at the destruction of Israel, and that is not something Israel can stand by and watch. Israel is well within its rights to defend its borders and prevent any version of October 7 in the future.
The Israelis do not want a war with Hezbollah under any circumstances. The consequences of that would be absolutely devastating for our small Jewish nation. Experts explain that most of Hezbollah’s rockets are short-range, which means that the entire northern border and the homes of the farmers who have lived in the north for years would be completely destroyed.
Major cities such as Haifa and Tel Aviv would also come under Hezbollah fire, with devastating consequences in the most populated areas. A war with Hezbollah would mean that we would be forced to stay in bunkers, possibly cut off from the rest of the world, to escape the chaos and destruction that Hezbollah attacks can cause.
Israel will do what it must do, with or without international support. Still, the ball is in Hezbollah’s court, and the international community has a responsibility to put pressure on Iran’s terror proxy in Lebanon to stop its attacks and heed Biden’s warning when he said, “Don’t do this.”
The author is a social media activist with over 10 years of experience working for Israeli and Jewish causes and NGOs that support these causes. She is the co-founder and COO of Social Lite Creative, a digital marketing firm specializing in geopolitics.
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