ISRAEL – On Tuesday, Hezbollah released drone footage of the northern Israel city of Haifa, with key military and civilian sites marked on the video. It was widely seen as a veiled threat to Israel not to escalate the conflict a lethal strike on Haifa would likely trigger all-out war. Nasrallah said it was part of Hezbollah’s “psychological warfare” against its enemy.
Hours after the video was published, Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, said the country was “very close to the moment of decision to change the rules against Hezbollah and Lebanon There is a widely held view that neither Israel nor Hezbollah want to trigger a war right now. That war between two well-armed enemies would risk devastation to millions of people on both sides of the border, and also risk dragging in Hezbollah’s backer, Iran, and the US, Israel’s key ally.
Some in Israel’s government believe that the Hamas attacks on 7 October changed calculations of security, and that residents of northern areas won’t be able to return to their homes unless Hezbollah is defeated on the battlefield.
More than 60,000 of them have been living in temporary accommodation away from the border since Hezbollah began launching rockets and missiles into northern Israel in support of its Palestinian ally, Hamas. More than 90,000 Lebanese have also been displaced as Israeli forces have responded with air and artillery strikes. A poll of 800 Israelis this week by the Jewish People Policy Institute found that more than 60% wanted to attack Hezbollah “with full force”. More than a third (36%) said they wanted to do it “as soon as possible even before Israel had finished fighting Hamas in Gaza. That figure has grown since a similar poll three months ago (BBC)…[+]