With attention focused on the northern front, fears are growing in Israel that the confrontation with Hezbollah could turn into a protracted war of attrition. This escalation comes in conjunction with increasing Iranian pressure targeting Israel’s interior, which imposes additional challenges on Tel Aviv’s ability to deal with this complex pattern of confrontations.
According to a report by journalist Avi Ashkenazi in the Maariv newspaper, Hezbollah, similar to Iran, is following what is known as the “war of the poor,” a strategy that relies on managing a low-cost confrontation that aims to exhaust the opponent and confuse its internal front. The report explains that the party takes advantage of weather conditions, especially fog, to bring armed groups into the border areas, in order to carry out concentrated bombing operations targeting sites close to the border fence.
In this context, the Israeli town of Misgav Am, which is distinguished by its sensitive geographical location and is surrounded by Lebanese territory on three sides, became a direct target. Earlier today, Hezbollah members were able to infiltrate and carry out attacks using mortar shells and anti-tank missiles, killing one person and wounding another, in addition to causing significant material damage.
Ashkenazi believes that this type of operation may expand to include other towns along the border line, from “Ras Naqoura” in the west to “Ghajar” in the east, in an attempt to weaken the steadfastness of the Israeli population in these areas and force them to displace.
On the other hand, the report indicates that Iran is following a similar approach, based on its awareness of the limits of its ability to directly confront the firepower of both the United States and the Israeli army. This prompts it to carry out intermittent strikes by launching missiles, often with fragmentary warheads, targeting different areas inside Israel.
The report adds that Tehran recently escalated this path by launching missiles carrying heavy warheads weighing about 500 kilograms of explosives towards the cities of Dimona and Arad, in a move aimed at keeping the Israeli home front under constant pressure.
According to the report, the biggest challenge facing Israel is that this dual tactic by Hezbollah and Iran may succeed in dragging it into a long war of attrition, which will directly affect the cohesion of its internal front.
The report concludes by noting that Israel finds itself facing critical choices, especially on the northern front, between escalating military operations inside Lebanon or setting clear objectives for the battle and criteria for evaluating its results. He warns that failure to do so may lead to the border towns being evacuated of their residents, a scenario that carries strategic and political repercussions that Tel Aviv does not want to achieve.
