The days pass, and the Israeli pressure on Hezbollah is only increasing, bringing the organization closer to the brink of breaking and ceasing. A particularly strong blow was brought to the organization on the anniversary of the outbreak of the war: In the air, the Air Force took out one of the largest attacks so far in the war, and in fact in the 21st century as a whole – and attacked dozens of Hezbollah headquarters all over southern Lebanon, many of which were field commands and many others were used by the intelligence and communications forces. According to the IDF spokesman, many of the sites were destroyed, and at least dozens of Hezbollah operatives were killed, including several senior field commanders. The IDF’s damage to Hezbollah’s chain of command is only getting deeper and deeper.
At the same time, the IDF expanded its ground operations across the northern border, with 2 additional divisions joining the maneuvers – Division 91 (the regional division of the Galilee), and Division 146 (a reserve division that has not been used in the war so far). Currently, there are at least 4 divisions operating in Lebanon, including more than 8 brigades, with 3 divisions operating in the Gaza Strip with more than 6 brigades. The Shiite villages near the Israeli border, including Miss-Aljebel, Yaron and Marun-a-Ras, are occupied by IDF forces and partially destroyed, with the current price of blood significantly lower than that of the Second Lebanon War in 2006. On Tuesday, the Israeli flag was raised above the main structure of Maroun-a-Ras, in the symbol of Israeli strength.
The intensity of the attack on Hezbollah was evident in the speech of Naim Qassem, Nasrallah’s deputy and one of the last remaining senior members of the organization, who said in a speech that Hezbollah relied on Nabih Berry’s actions (Chairman of Amal, a major Shi’ite party) to reach a ceasefire agreement – thus expressing an initial readiness to compromise with Israel regardless of the Gaza Strip. An act of defeat on the part of Hezbollah. At the same time, Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered a speech addressed to the Lebanese citizens, calling on them to take responsibility and their fate into their hands, and to take active action against Hezbollah now in order to get Lebanon back on track in the corrected countries – when otherwise, the future holds nothing but wars, crises and bloodshed. It should be seen in the coming days whether the non-Shi’ite communities in Lebanon will be able to take advantage of this historic opportunity to change the balance of power in the country, and bring about the stabilization of the successful strategic change that Israel has created against Iran.