Hezbollah attacks growing deadlier by the day: Israeli official

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Israeli media
10 Aug 2024 17:21
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Head of the Upper al-Jalil regional council, Giora Zaltz, criticizes the Israeli government for its strategy in the north, which has left tens of thousands unable to return to settlements.

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Smoke rises from settler housing units in the Metulla settlement in northern occupied Palestine, after Hezbollah Resistance fighters attacked the buildings appropriated by Israeli occupation forces, on June 22, 2024. (AP)

Hezbollah is pacing up its operations on the Northern Front, as these attacks become deadlier and more powerful, the head of the Israeli Upper al-Jalil Council, Giora Zaltz, stated on Saturday.

Zaltz, who heads the local authority governing a large section of northern Israeli-occupied territories, said that these areas are becoming increasingly less secure.

The official criticized the central Israeli government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for its policies in the north during an interview for the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (KAN).

"Netanyahu's government discovered, in the past weeks, that there is an enemy in the northern borders called Hezbollah and it awaits [Hezbollah's] response to the assassination of commander (Fouad) Shokor in the Southern Suburb of Beirut," Zaltz explained.

He stressed that the situation in the north is deteriorating from "bad to worse," as daily warning sirens sound across the northern occupied territories due to Hezbollah's drone and rocket attacks.

The Israeli official revealed that dozens of settlers' housing units have been destroyed, vast areas have been burnt, and dozens of casualties have been recorded among Israeli soldiers and settlers.

In addition to the material and human losses suffered by the Israeli occupation, Zaltz pointed to the completely dysfunctional healthcare, banking, and educational sectors in the north. Zaltz reiterated his calls for a radical change in the Israeli government's strategy in the north that would allow evacuated settlers to return to their colonial outposts.

Settlers to never return to evacuated settlements

Earlier in late May this year, a new study conducted by the Israeli Tel Hai Academic College revealed that around 40% of evacuees from the settlements in northern occupied Palestine are contemplating not returning even after the war ends.

Since October 8, the Lebanese Resistance movement - Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets, anti-tank missiles, and drones from Lebanon toward settlements and military outposts in the Upper al-Jalil and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, supporting the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and responding to Israeli aggression on Lebanese towns and civilians.

These daily operations have caused extensive damage to housing units, buildings, and infrastructure, significantly undermining the supposed security that many settlers believed they had. In response, the Israeli government evacuated numerous settlers shortly after the war on Gaza began, temporarily relocating them to hotels for over seven months.

Dr. Ayala Cohen, head of the college's Knowledge Center that conducted the poll, said, "The residents of the north have to deal with many difficulties of prolonged hotel stays. They are subject to great uncertainty from a security, political, economic, and social point of view."

Since then, Hezbollah's attacks have only grown and new weapons and strategies were introduced to the battlefield, further undermining Israeli occupation forces in the north.

On Friday, Hezbollah fighters responded to Israeli strikes on four Lebanese towns by attacking the occupation city of Kiryat Shmona on three occasions, launching a swarm of drones on a base in the coastal Liman settlement, and directly attacking several buildings in a number of settlements.

As Zaltz pointed out, Hezbollah is also preparing a stern response to an Israeli attack on the Southern Suburb of Beirut, which killed commander martyr Fouad Shokor and a number of civilians on July 30.