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Anshel Pfeffer

ByAnshel Pfeffer, Anshel Pfeffer in Jerusalem

Opinion

Israelis ask: was this the moment to strike Hezbollah?

Attention turned north this week after months of focus on Gaza

December 7, 2018 10:04
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1 min read

Operation Northern Shield, announced by the IDF on Tuesday morning and expected to last at least a month, is in reality just one stage in an ongoing Israeli effort to destroy Hezbollah tunnels under the Lebanese border.

It comes after technological and intelligence-gathering capabilities reached what the IDF terms “maturity”, leading to the next step: an overt digging operation to uncover and destroy the tunnels.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has previously threatened that, in a future war with Israel, his fighters would “conquer the Galilee”. The IDF believes that the tunnels are an integral part of that plan.

They were to be used for an initial surprise attack by Hezbollah’s elite “Radwan” fighters and also act as a supply-and-escape route for additional fighters, who would pour through breaches in the border fence.