TERROR group Hezbollah could unleash an October 7 style massacre on Israel at any moment as the country prepares for an all-out war across the Middle East.
Tensions are at a boiling point in the war-torn region after Hezbollah launched hundreds of missiles at Israel this morning as the IDF targeted its strongholds in southern Lebanon.
A woman stands in a building hit directly by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in the northern Israeli city of Acre today
EPAA Hezbollah drone is obliterated mid-air by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system today[/caption]
Hezbollah fighters training in the southern Lebanese village of Aaramta
ReutersSmoke rises from the southern Lebanese town of Khiam on Sunday after an Israeli airstrike[/caption]
Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had unleashed a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah bases across the border at around 4.30am on Sunday morning.
Intelligence had detected plans by the terror group to fire thousands of rockets, with some even earmarked to go as far south as Tel Aviv.
Hezbollah went ahead with its planned revenge attack – for the Israeli assassination of a senior commander last month – but was only able to fire a few hundred rockets with little damage caused.
It marks the latest humiliation for Iran and its chief terror proxy, and threatens to push boiling tensions across the border into a new phase with all-out war.
OCTOBER 7 STYLE ATTACK
Middle East expert and former editor of The Jerusalem Post Yaakov Katz told The Sun: “An October 7 style Hezbollah attack is always a possibility.
“And it would be irresponsible to assume that they cannot do it.
“I think one of the lessons of October 7 for Israel is always assume the worst and don’t think that you have your enemy contained and under control.
“We have to assume that such an option does exist and can happen.”
Yaakov said since October 7 some 60,000 Israelis have fled their homes along the border in the north because of tit-for-tat strikes between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Not because of the rockets,” he explains “but because of the fear that Hezbollah does have tunnels, does have a way to storm the border”.
It “can carry out an attack much larger than what Hamas did on the border with Gaza”, he explained.
“Most of those people along the border have left their homes and have not yet been able to go back because of exactly that fear of an October 7 style attack.”
“The real possibility does exist.”
ISRAEL PREPARES FOR WAR
Yaakov said Israel prevented Hezbollah from firing “thousands of rockets and missiles” over the border just “minutes before those missiles were supposed to be launched” today.
But he warned: “Hezbollah has over 150,000 rockets and missiles that cover the entire state of Israel with their range and their different sizes.”
And Hezbollah could pursue “a desire and urge that it needs to get something launched into the center of Israel, into the Tel Aviv area”.
“If they strike in Tel Aviv,” he warns, “it would provoke Israel to also retaliate in a big way in Beirut”, and “then we’re on a path towards a wider escalation.”
The Middle East pro said “anything is possible” when it comes to Hezbollah and Iran, and that the group has the capability and the desire to launch an even bigger attack than what we saw this morning.
Speaking of the possibility of a ground invasion by the IDF into Lebanon, he said: “If Hezbollah starts to send its forces across the border, Israel will have no choice but to also send its troops into Lebanon to push back those forces so they cannot cross into Israel.
“If you really want to degrade your enemy’s capabilities, you need to send boots on the ground, and you need to go between their different targets and their different command centres.
“You need to go into those bunkers and into those tunnels.
“They have massive underground bunker complexes, which they can launch rockets from, they can move trucks inside.
“To really get to those, you would need to put people inside them and to go and weed out those different terrorist and different terrorist infrastructure.
“If this war does expand and all these rockets are unleashed on Israel, I don’t think it will have much of a choice but to do and launch such a ground offensive.”
ReutersAn Israeli strike in Lebanon shown in video shared by the IDF[/caption]
ReutersA person walks near broken windows of a damaged residential building after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones towards Israel in Acre[/caption]
NO OTHER CHOICE
Former British Army commander Colonel Richard Kemp, speaking to The Sun from Tel Aviv, said this latest escalation marks a shift in the conflict.
“What we’re seeing now illustrates a problem that has to be dealt with.
“In northern Israel, something like 80,000 civilians have had to be withdrawn from the northern part of Israel, and are now distributed around hotels in different parts of Israel.
“They can’t go home while this threat remains of massive missile capability, plus a significant ground army that could launch an attack such as the 7th of October in the north.
“And that has to be dealt with, and Israel has to find a way of dealing with it.”
Richard said the streets of Tel Aviv are “very quiet” and the beaches are almost deserted as people stay at home amid the ongoing warnings from officials.
He said most are only leaving if they have to and are otherwise staying at home close to their air raid shelters.
The former Army boss believes that a solution fpr Israel will likely have to be “a large scale military assault on southern Lebanon”.
“And of course, Israel has to confront Iran head on as well at some point,” he added.
“While the current regime in Iran feels that it has the ability to continually generate and carry out attacks against Israel through its proxies, then that threat will continue.
“And Israel simply cannot allow it to go on. I think there has to be a further escalation in this conflict. I think it’s a necessity.
“The alternative is for Israel to live in perpetuity under this threat. It has to be seen to deal with the threat, not only to prevent further rocket attacks and further attacks from the different proxies of Hezbollah, but also to deter other potential enemies against attacking it.
“Israel lives in a very tough region and has to be as strong as it can be and as robust as it can be in dealing with the enemies who mean to bring harm to Israeli civilians and the Israeli military.”
An explosion in Lebanon last night as Israel launched airstrikes at Hezbollah targets
AFPSmoke billows from an area targeted by an Israeli airstrike between the southern Lebanese border villages of Zibqin and Yater today[/caption]
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