Israel northern border is heating up, and the trend is expected to continue, senior IDF officer from the Northern Command warned, according to a Nana10 report.
The officers said there is an increase in the number of incidents along the border, including Hezbollah surveillance as well as openly armed terrorists walking around freely, in direct contravention of United Nations Security Council resolution 1701.
Yesterday’s attack that wounded two IDF soldiers was the first time that Hezbollah openly took credit for an attack in a long time.
Hezbollah, an Iranian client, is trying to send a message of deterrence to Israel, that Hezbollah can freely act along Lebanon’s borders against Israel, even as it is busy fighting ISIS in Syria.
Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary-General, Sheikh Naim Qassem said “Israel knows that the opposition [Hezbollah] is alert and will respond to any action at the appropriate time.”
Hezbollah knows that Israel doesn’t want to have a war so soon after Operation Protective Edge, and is taking advantage of that.
Hezbollah may have up to 100,000 missiles in Lebanon, and has been spending the past few years amassing as many as it can.
The open violations, the attacks and the attitude are indications that any deterrence Israel created in the last war with Hezbollah is quickly wearing off, and UN Security Council Resolution 1701, that Tzipi Livni touted as her great success at the time, has effectively collapsed.
Defense Minister Yaalon said that he is reexamining the civilian security budgets for northern towns. Their budgets were just cut a few days ago, and that may have been premature.
Despite the warning signs, Israel’s defense department is telling Israelis it’s still safe to travel up north during the Sukkot vacation. Tens of thousands of Israelis will be heading north for the holiday vacation.