February 9, 2024:
Since the October 2023 Hamas offensive in Gaza, Israel has gone on the offensive against Hamas in Gaza, in the West Bank, and may soon kick off against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel gave peace a chance and that didn’t work, but perhaps belligerence will.
The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) are fully mobilized and so are Israeli civil defense operations. Israel expects Hezbollah to fight back against IDF forces while also attacking Israeli civilians in northern Israel. Hezbollah’s ongoing attacks on civilians are intended to weaken the Israeli offensive by forcing the Israeli to assign troops to protect Israeli civilians.
Israeli civilians are warned that there may be widespread power outages lasting or two days. There could also be disruptions in availability of food supplies. In northern Israel, where the heaviest fighting is expected, 100,000 civilians are being moved from areas that might be under fire or subject to enemy raids. Additional medical professionals are being mobilized as are preparations for establishing temporary hospitals and first aid facilities as well as stockpiles of food for displaced people. Arrangements were made to transport thousands of wounded to hospitals throughout Israel.
Israel also went after Hezbollah leaders. These attacks are made with air strikes or using Mossad (secret intelligence service) assassination teams. IDF infantry are supported by self-propelled artillery, air strikes and the use of aircraft and UAVs for air reconnaissance and surveillance. IDF leaders understand that Hezbollah has been preparing its defenses for several decades and receiving weapons from Iran. Those deliveries were often destroyed by Israel airstrikes as the trucks passed through Syria on their way to Lebanon. These attacks were the main reason for the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes against targets in Syria over the years. The Iranian missiles and unguided long-range rockets that did reach Syria were attacked if the warehouses or bunkers containing weapons could be located. Some of these storage sites were also used as workshops where Iranian technicians added guidance systems to unguided rockets. The guidance system kits were more compact and easier to conceal and smuggle into Syria for installation on unguided rockets that survived their trip from Iran.