The Hezbollah terrorist organization is now using not only families – as does Hamas in Gaza – but entire villages as human shields in southern Lebanon.
The Iranian-backed Shiite terrorist organization has created an entire military structure in the nation across Israel’s northern border.
In the process, it has also placed its fellow Lebanese citizens directly into the path of the crossfire that will inevitably come – possibly with the next Hezbollah provocation, perhaps with a multi-site cross border raid and abduction attempt.
In any of those scenarios, the Israel Defense Force will certainly strike back at the source of the fire.
But in a stunning set of maps and aerial photography provided to The New York Times by Israeli military officials this week, it is clear Hezbollah has moved its military infrastructure into the villages of the innocents, and around their municipal boundaries.
To the naked eye, a common village on a hilltop in southern Lebanon near the border looks pretty much like any other.
But with enhanced Israeli military equipment, one can see a Hezbollah command post surrounded by anti-tank positions, underground tunnels, infantry positions, rocket launders and arms depots.
In short, each village comprises an entire military base par excellence, financed an equipped by Iran and Syria.
To date, Hezbollah has increased its arsenal to approximately 100,000 rockets and missiles of various ranges. At this point, both Hezbollah and Israel acknowledge the terror group can reach any point in Israel with its firepower.
Israel does not intend to allow its citizens to live as sitting ducks, an IDF official told NYT.
The interview with the prominent newspaper was, in effect, provided as a sort of international “red alert.” It is a warning to the world that Israel would like to see this issue placed on the world agenda, especially since it is precisely this phenomenon that was supposed to be prevented under the terms of the United Nations-brokered cease-fire agreement that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
The UNIFIL (UN Interim Force in Lebanon) troops were to monitor such activities and – one would assume – find a way to prevent them from occurring.
In effect, a third Lebanon War will have been caused by the inability of the UN force to carry out its responsibilities – and of course, the unending violations of the cease-fire agreement by Hezbollah, and Lebanon, which allowed, aided and abetted the terror group in its mission.
“Where is the world?” asked former national security adviser Yaakov Amidror. Now a presence at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University, Amidror wondered, “Why does it not stop the buildup?”