After several senior Hezbollah military leaders and an Iranian General were killed in the Syrian portion of the Golan Heights, presumably by Israel, there is plenty of speculation as to when and how Hezbollah and Iran will react.
An article in The Times of Israel suggests that capturing an Israeli town or sections of northern Israel could be in store, as Hezbollah has threatened to do so in the next conflict:
Nasrallah, [Lt. Col. Dotan Razili] said of the organization’s leader, “wants to conquer a city,” perhaps in the Galilee. The border town at the tip of the Galilee’s panhandle, Metulla, he suggested, “is definitely a possibility.”The army constantly practices perimeter defense and the invasion of enemy strongholds or towns in which the enemy is embedded. It does not, however, drill its infantry soldiers in the practice of taking back an Israeli town seized, in its entirety, by enemy forces.“The main element is to lessen the shock and make sure they’ll act,” Razili said, noting that no Israeli village or town has fallen since Kibbutz Nitzana, in 1948, “and the trauma of that endures till today.”
Longtime readers may recall my trip to Metula in the summer of 2013, where I reported on the vulnerability, Metula and the fake Hezbollah village, including maps and photos showing the geography:
Most interesting to me was the “fake” Hezbollah village just next door:
More details at the original post.
Already the Israelis are jittery in the town, sending tank reinforcements and heightening alert:
While life continues as normal in northern Israel despite the high tensions in the area, seemingly routine incidents can cause alarm. The Metula security squad was deployed to the Israel-Lebanon border on Tuesday morning after a convoy of civilian vehicles drove on the Lebanese side of the border, waving Hezbollah flags and firing their weapons into the air. It later transpired that this was a funeral procession from Khiam in southern Lebanon. The IDF said it was monitoring the incident, but that it had no bearings on Israel. Residents in Metula said the incident was unusual because Hezbollah usually does not allow firing near the border.
So would Hezbollah try to capture Metula in response to the attack on the Hezbollah and Iranian commanders?
My guess is not as part of a tit-for-tat. More likely rocket firings and attempted kidnappings, or attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets abroad.
Because an attempt to capture an Israeli town like Metula would be the start of, or result in, all-out war.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY
