'Security belt' with Lebanon passes through North: Ex-Israeli official
The former General Director of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's office, Shimon Sheves, says that without a serious security belt, the Israeli settlers of the North will not go back there.
The former General Director of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's office, Shimon Sheves, said that "Israel" has clearly lost occupied al-Jalil, adding that "The simple truth must be said: Israel's security belt with Lebanon now passes through the Amiad-Acre line."
The political analyst and former Israeli official referred to the area evacuated of Israeli settlers in northern occupied Palestine, which reaches the borders of Kibbutz Am'ad near Lake Tiberias to the east and Akka to the west.
Sheves believes that the performance of the Israeli government and security establishment over the past eight months up until now has been a miserable failure, noting that 80,000 Israeli settlers have been expelled from the occupied land and have been "refugees" for eight months.
He stressed that without a serious security belt, the Israeli settlers of the North will not go back there, considering that "Israel's" withdrawal in 2000 is what led to the second war with Lebanon and the growth of Hezbollah's strength.
Israeli officials' jaws drop over Hezbollah's complex operations
On May 17, multiple Israeli media outlets reported on Hezbollah's military capabilities, following a series of top-tier attacks that targeted highly-prized Israeli surveillance and radar systems, while introducing new methods of engagement.
The Ynet news website said that Israeli officers serving on the northern front have issued a warning regarding the fact that Hezbollah can launch an attack on Israeli soldiers near the Palestinian-Lebanese border 30 seconds after locating them. The capability has been showcased in several videos published by the group's Military Media unit, where Hezbollah utilized either suicide drones, anti-tank guided missiles, or artillery weapons of various types to target Israeli groupings and individual soldiers.
Moreover, the military correspondent for the Israeli Army Radio said that Hezbollah has carried out a number of "high-quality attacks on more distant targets, using more advanced military weapons."
On May 16, Hezbollah launched an airstrike via an Ababil-T drone armed with two Soviet-era S-5 rockets on a grouping of Israeli soldiers in Metula. The attack marked the first-ever aerial strike launched on Israeli positions by a Lebanese entity and the first Arab strike on Israeli positions since 1973.
The Israeli Army Radio's correspondent said that Hezbollah has made it "a normal" occurrence to launch dozens of rockets and missiles toward the Meron Air Traffic Control military base, one of the occupation's strategic military sites, used to both coordinate offensive operations and track and discover aerial threats.
As for the attacks on May 17, the correspondent pointed to an attack conducted via several suicide drones that targeted Israeli officers and soldiers' accommodation camps in Ga'aton. On this particular incident, the Israeli broadcaster Channel 14's correspondent said that the drone attack placed hundreds of thousands of Israelis in shelters and bunkers after sirens went off in Ben Ami, Gesher HaZiv, Evron, Nahariya, Sa'ar, Shlomi, Metzuba, Betzet, Achziv Miluot Industrial Zone, Liman, Rosh HaNikra, Avdon, Neveh Ziv, Manot, Ga'aton, Yechiam, Cabri, and Ein Yacov over 14 minutes.
Channel 14 also reported that Israeli officials have always "estimated that Hezbollah had amazing capabilities that would surprise everyone."
The broadcaster also said that Hezbollah's attack on the "highly sensitive" Tel Shamayim facility "dropped the jaws" of Israeli security officers, the military's Northern Command, and the Israeli political leadership. The site, located 35 km away from the border, was attacked by two suicide drones, escaping a complex and layered anti-air defense system before impacting its target.