By striking military targets in the north of Akka, triggering sirens that caused hysteria among Israeli settlers, Hezbollah have just expanded confrontation between Lebanon and the Israeli regime.
The Lebanese Resistance Movement Hezbollah has expanded the range of its strikes against the Israeli military, marking 200 days since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza and the initiation of Operation al-Aqsa Flood by the Palestinian resistance.
On October 8, Hezbollah opened up what is referred to as the ‘northern front’ to support the Palestinian Resistance groups in the Gaza Strip.
A Single Red Line
The Lebanese resistance started off by conducting a number of Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) attacks on Israeli military sites, intelligence and monitoring equipment.
In his first speech, addressing the outbreak of war in Gaza, Hezbollah Secretary-General, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, announced that his group’s efforts were tailored to taking a burden off of the Palestinian Resistance forces and set a single red line: “Hamas will win”.
The strategy implemented by Hezbollah has resulted in the displacement of over 100,000 Israeli settlers in northern Israel, in addition to paralyzing economic activity in the north, drawing large Israeli troop build ups and reportedly causing billions in damage.
Escalatory Attacks
Despite frequent provocative and escalatory attacks by the Israeli military, which include assassination strikes in Beirut and bombing campaigns against civilian infrastructure, Hezbollah has opted for a calculated and restrained approach.
Following Israel’s assassination of Hamas politburo leader, Saleh al-Arouri, in his office that is situated in the southern suburb of the Lebanese Capital, Dahiyeh, the Lebanese resistance group chose to target Israeli military sites.
One of those sites was the secretive Israeli intelligence gathering base, on Mount Meron, which is located north of the occupied city of Safad.
When the Israeli military decided to attack civilians in Lebanon’s Baalbek, located in the northern Bekaa Valley area, Hezbollah also chose to launch retaliatory strikes, but again chose to show restraint.
Israel has since struck the south of Lebanon a number of times, which has ushered in the response tactic of launching dense barrages of rockets into Israeli settlements, particularly Kiryat Shmona.
Marking 200 Days
Marking 200 days since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, Hezbollah released an infographic which broke down the number of attacks it had carried out against the Israeli regime.
According to the information released, Hezbollah has carried out 1,637 different attacks, including 1,404 against Israeli military facilities, 51 against aerial targets and 182 against Israeli settlements.
On Tuesday, at 1:40 PM (Palestine time), Hezbollah launched a “combined aerial attack using diversionary and attack drones”, strike the headquarters of the Golani Brigade and Egoz Unit 621 at the Shraga Barracks, which is located to the north of the city of Akka.
Until this time, the furthest distance Hezbollah had chosen to target, away from the Lebanese border, was to the north of Safad.
By striking military targets in the north of Akka, triggering sirens that caused hysteria among Israeli settlers and an attack that was visible from Haifa, Hezbollah have just expanded confrontation between Lebanon and the Israeli regime.
Last week, in a well orchestrated attack that also utilized loitering munitions (attack drones), Hezbollah monitored and then struck a meeting organized between ranking members of the Israeli military in the Arab Al-AramsheH site.
The attack utilized drones and ATGM fire, inflicting at least 19 injuries amongst the Israeli soldiers present. One of the drone strike impacts was even caught on camera and proved to be a propaganda disaster for Tel Aviv.
High Price
On the Lebanese side of the border, the price has not been slim for its support of the Palestinian people in Gaza either, as Israel has carried out over 4,000 missile and artillery strikes against various targets in northern, but mainly southern, Lebanon.
Some 400 Lebanese have been killed in these Israeli attacks, which have disseminated civilian infrastructure and deliberately murdered journalists, medics, doctors, children, women and the elderly.
This, as Hezbollah will carry out anywhere between three and 14 attacks per day, which has not resulted in the deaths of more than a handful of settlers, but has inflicted over 3,000 casualties (mainly injuries) on Israeli soldiers according to Hezbollah.
The Israeli figure for the injury toll has not been released, whereas their claims about the number of soldiers killed are widely accepted to be inaccurate due to military censorship.
There are now growing concerns that a Lebanon-Israeli war is on the horizon and it appears that with each escalation this possibility grows.
While Lebanese Hezbollah states that it is prepared for a wide war, it asserts that this is not its intention and that its actions are purely geared towards supporting a Palestinian victory in Gaza.
On the other hand, Israeli political and military officials have repeatedly threatened to destroy Lebanon and launch a comprehensive war, with the goal of pushing the Lebanese Resistance forces north of the Litani River.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
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