TEHRAN- Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has unleashed a barrage of missiles and artillery fire at Israeli military sites in response to the regime’s attacks against the Mediterranean country.

Hezbollah said it hit the Abirim settlement in northern Israel “for the first time” with Katyusha rockets.

The resistance movement noted that the rocket fire was “in response to the Israeli enemy attacks that targeted civilians in the villages of Safad El Battikh, Majdal Selm, and Chaqra” in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah also targeted Israel’s Ruwaisat Al-Alam military site in the occupied Lebanese hills of Kafr Shuba “with a heavy barrage of missiles”. The Lebanese group said a self-manufactured missile was used in the operation “which led to a direct hit on the site, destroying part of it, and setting it on fire”.

The Lebanese Resistance Brigades, which is affiliated to Hezbollah, also attacked the Rahib military site in northern Israel with rockets and artillery, according to Hezbollah. 

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire since the regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched war on Gaza more than nine months ago. 

The Lebanese resistance movement has reiterated that it won’t stop attacks against Israel unless it ends the genocidal war on Gaza which has claimed the lives of nearly 39,000 Palestinians since October 7.

Israel has repeatedly threatened to launch a full-blown war against Lebanon if Hezbollah does not halt its attacks. 
 

Hezbollah warnings 

Hezbollah has time and again warned Israel against the consequences of going to direct war with Lebanon. 

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah issued the latest warning on Wednesday. 

“If your tanks enter Lebanon and its southern regions, you won’t have to worry about a shortage of tanks—there will be no tanks left. Our front in Lebanon will remain active as long as the aggression against Gaza, its people, and their resistance continues in all its forms,” he said. 

Power of resistance 

Hezbollah has said the resistance movement does not want war with Israel but is ready should it come.

Israel declared war on Lebanon in 2000 and 2006. In both conflicts, the Israeli army was met with strong resistance from Hezbollah and had to retreat. 

In mid-August 2021, an Israeli inquiry acknowledged the regime’s failure to achieve its goal in the 2006 war, describing the conflict as “unsuccessful” and a “missed opportunity”.

“Israel initiated a long war, which ended without its clear military victory,” the inquiry said. 

Nasrallah said in June this year that the number of Hezbollah operatives who are ready to join the war has exceeded 100,000.

Citing the World Factbook of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Reuters also reported in June that Hezbollah's military strength is underpinned by upwards of 150,000 missiles and rockets of various types and ranges. The number of Hezbollah’s missiles in 2006 was about 14,000. 

It is as clear as day that Israel would be the loser if it goes to direct war against Hezbollah concerning the current military capabilities of the Lebanese resistance movement. 

An Israeli official highlighted the possibility of a full-scale war last month warning that Hezbollah can make Israel “uninhabitable in 72 hours”.

“We are not in a good situation, and we are not prepared for a real war. We are living in a fantasy,” Shaul Goldstein, who leads Israel’s Independent System Operator Ltd, known by its Hebrew initials as NOGA, was cited as saying by Israeli media. 

Goldstein, who is the head of the company responsible for planning Israel’s electrical systems, added, “We cannot promise electricity if there is a war in the north. After 72 hours without electricity, it will be impossible to live here. We are not prepared for a real war.”

Israeli officials have explicitly acknowledged that the regime is vulnerable in case of a direct conflict with Hezbollah. 

But it seems such admissions have fallen on deaf ears as Netanyahu and some other officials do not stop threats of a full-fledged war. 

In 2006, Israel was humiliated as it had to end the war after 34 days. 

If Israel decides to press ahead with its military adventurism, it will have to face the unforeseen consequences. 

In case of an all-out war, all regional resistance groups will be ready to give a painful lesson to Israel which could lead to the downfall of the apartheid and bogus regime.