Hezbollah has lost its "cities of refuge": This is the dilemma currently troubling the IDF | Avi Ashkenazi
The IDF continues to pressure Hezbollah on the Ali-Taher ridge and has struck headquarters of Badr and Radwan, but prefers to keep a low profile so as not to push Iran into action. In Gaza, targeted killings have resumed with Netanyahu's approval, and in the West Bank, criticism is directed at the political echelon.
The fighting in Lebanon continued over the weekend. Three soldiers from the Yahalom unit of the Combat Engineering Corps were wounded in the Ali-Taher ridge area. The goal of the operation is to exert pressure while damaging the dozens of terrorists entrenched in the "cities of refuge" — the name for Hezbollah's strategic tunnels. These are tunnels that are the masterpiece of Iran, built in Lebanon. They were supposed to serve as an "X-factor" for Hezbollah's Badr brigade in defense and offense in the event of combat against the IDF.
Hezbollah is now at a crossroads. It sees that the Lebanese government is continuing negotiations with Israel under American auspices. It sees that Iran is not really acting to protect its people on the Ali-Taher ridge. It understands that it has already lost the cities of refuge.
Yesterday's attack (Saturday), in which the three soldiers were wounded by a drone, led the IDF to strike in such a way that it hit Hezbollah's fire arrays in the area. But the IDF used this to hurt Hezbollah very much, when it hit the two regional headquarters in the Nabatieh sector: of Badr and Radwan. In these strikes, the operations officer of Badr and a battalion commander of Radwan were eliminated. The IDF currently prefers to continue operating on the Ali-Taher ridge quietly, without much noise. It understands that noisy actions might push Iran to try and act in light of Hezbollah's distress.
In Gaza, the IDF and the Shin Bet are returning to carry out targeted killings, albeit at a low dosage. In the security establishment, they say that Nili-style killings and strikes on Hamas's buildup beyond the yellow line have been carried out in the last two weeks only with the approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the security establishment, they say that at first the Prime Minister refrained from approving killings, and apparently the public pressure last week led to the release of the approvals, albeit sparingly. Yesterday at noon was the fourth elimination that was approved and carried out.
While in both arenas, Lebanon and Gaza, Israel maintains a low profile in the reports coming out of there, in the West Bank Israel is only becoming more entangled, especially because of the conduct of the political echelon, which backs with silence and actions the activity of Jewish terror throughout the West Bank, and especially in the village of Qusra.
If the police, the IDF, and the Shin Bet really wanted to deal with the extreme right-wing activists in Qusra or anywhere in the West Bank, they could do so without any problem. The thing is that the political echelons know how to carry out blockages for the IDF and the security establishment.
In the West Bank today there are two thousand Border Police fighters subordinate to the commander of the West Bank Division. That is the size of an infantry brigade. The IDF could have used these companies to evacuate Ruska and another 115 illegal outposts. The words of Defense Minister Israel Katz, who demanded to transfer civil enforcement in the West Bank to the police, are nothing more than an election-eve spin.
The Defense Minister is trying with his statement to create a de facto annexation of the occupied territory in the West Bank. Both he and the Prime Minister know that this is a hollow move that will not happen, and it will not pass either in the USA or in the international community.
