IDF Proceeding To Second Stage of Campaign Against Hezbollah

Less then two months after the IDF crossed the border and initiated a ground incursion into Hezbollah-occupied territory in southern Lebanon, the results are visible on the ground. Recent satellite photos show how the villages adjacent to the border area, from where Radwan Forces were meant to launch their plan to "conquer the Galilee", as Nasrallah boasted in the past, have been completely cleared of Hezbollah infrastructure.

The photos show the destruction of the tunnels, bunkers and anti-tank missile firing positions that Hezbollah used to terrorize residents of Israel's northern communities. Sadly, the civilian buildings that ordinary people lived, worked, shopped and went to school in, that Hezbollah used as cover for their malign activities, have also had to be destroyed.

The IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. General Herzi Halevi, visited the northern border this week and met with Northern Command General Ori Gordin as well as other senior officers and the command staff of the 98th Division. Together they toured the network of tunnels and bunkers that Hezbollah has built in southern Lebanon, shortly before it was all demolished by IDF combat engineers.

Halevi said that "From here they could go on a raid into the State of Israel. We caught it in time and these infrastructures must not be rebuilt. We have been saying for years that Hezbollah is preparing the border area for war. For the countries of the world that doubted it, for the UN, for UNIFIL, these testimonies are very important to understand why we are destroying what is under the ground, and why we need to prevent them from being rebuilt."

Hezbollah's Rocket Arsenal Also Severely Degraded

Although Hezbollah continues to fire rockets and drones, and these weapons are doing damage and starting fires, it's a small fraction of what the IDF estimated Hezbollah was capable of doing. IDF troops have cleared the immediate threat from the border and are now moving further north to clear Hezbollah positions in a second band of villages.

The threat from Hezbollah can be more or less divided into three layers, with the first layer being the positions they set up in the villages right next to the Israeli border. The second layer is positions they set up further north from which they fire rockets, drones and anti-tank missiles directly into Israeli communities and IDF bases in the Galilee. The third layer is Hezbollah's broader organizational infrastructure which exists all throughout Lebanon, particularly the Bekaa Valley and the Dahyiah neighborhood of southern Beirut.