The Home Front Command declared that it has a special contingency plan in place in Israel to evacuate up to a quarter of a million residents living close to the Lebanon border. This was confirmed by a senior officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Around 1 million live in Israel’s North and in the event that a war starts with Hezbollah, evacuations can start. According to the officer:
“In the past we didn’t think of needing to evacuate whole communities, but now we understand that we will have to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people. “
This is mainly because of the fact the battlefield experience and technological abilities of Hezbollah are growing “thanks” to the fighting happening against Syria. Regional changes that the military did not expect happened. Israel’s borders witness changes and the IDF has to get ready for war against various groups instead of country armies.
While students from other countries do not have to worry about much except where to buy essays and similar, those living in northern Israel should be aware of the potential of war breaking out. The Home Front Command evolved though and it is ready to protect Israeli citizens. It was said that the army did always think about whether or not it is prepared or relevant. That is not just because of the Hezbollah rocket barrage threat that became a possibility in the past few months. The real reason is the possibility of faced with ground attacks carried out by terrorist groups against the civilian communities.
Israel is listening to everything that Hassan Nasrallah says and the threats issued are taken seriously. Civilians were told in the past that they simply need to go to the special bomb shelters but this needs to be changed as having civilians in front lines is not at all a good idea.
Unfortunately, it is close to impossible to evacuate all the residents in the area. However, it was stated that the army is working with communities and emergency services in order to prepare people that live in the northern communities for a mass evacuation scenario. Evacuated communities would eventually be housed in guest houses, schools and hotels in Jerusalem, Eilat, Jordan Valley and West Bank. The goal is to take people away from the North front lines. Whole communities can end up being housed together based on the experienced situation.
IDF believes that Hezbollah will most likely not attack Israel soon. The border with Lebanon is the one that is highly explosive and it is possible that the very next conflict is going to be truly devastating. Hezbollah did rebuild the arsenal it had since the 2006 Lebanon War, having access to over one hundred thousand short range rockets and even thousands of other missiles that would be able to reach the middle of Israel. This does include Tel Aviv.
The news broke out as Nasrallah issued a warning that Israel has to think “a million times” before a war with Lebanon would be started as the fighters he has will not have “Red lines” in the following conflict.
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