Fears are growing: Hezbollah is changing tactics – and the IDF is preparing for the next challenge | Avi Ashkenazi
Guerrilla warfare in Lebanon, a change in policy in Gaza, reinforcement of forces in the West Bank, and additional reserve mobilization – the series of challenges facing the IDF in the coming days looks particularly complex, and the political echelon is blocking any significant action.
The serious incident in the town of Majdal Zoun in the western sector of southern Lebanon, where two IDF soldiers were killed and four were wounded by an explosive device in a building, is a grave event. It signals a turn for the worse from Israel's perspective. Hezbollah is attempting and will continue to attempt to conduct guerrilla warfare on the ground, and its goal is to challenge the IDF. Everything is done with Iranian approval and timing.
The Israeli response should have been harsh, powerful, and extremely strong, without any proportionality to the incident. The issue is that the IDF acted clumsily yesterday (Wednesday). Several hours passed from the moment of the incident until the Air Force and artillery carried out strikes. Even the intensity was extremely measured in the face of the severe incident. The intention to attack the village of Al-Mansouri, which is located within the 'yellow line', was an action that was not planned to convey an atmosphere of 'the landlord has gone mad'.
In the Gaza arena, the IDF is trying to walk between the raindrops. The Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, visited Gaza yesterday and tried to convey a message to the public in Israel, especially to the residents of the Gaza envelope, following the restraint placed on the IDF by the political echelon, which determines that the policy of targeted killings in Gaza will be reduced in such a way that only the Chief of General Staff or the political echelon will approve any liquidation that is not in the nature of 'self-defense' for the forces.
Chief of General Staff Zamir said:
'We are implementing the security concept we defined - not only here, but along all the borders of the State of Israel. The IDF is on the front line, before the communities and before the residents, to protect them. In the Gaza Strip, we hit Hamas, weakened it significantly, and changed the security situation. The IDF will continue to act with initiative and will continue to act according to the principle we established - to remove threats and in any situation to protect the communities and the residents, and to maintain their security. We will not allow the creation of a threat on our borders as we experienced it on October 7.'
The coming days are going to be challenging for the IDF in the West Bank sector as well. The approach of the holidays and the fact that on the 1st of Elul, several new Israeli settlements are expected to be established on the ground in the West Bank. The beginning of the Tishrei holiday period will require the IDF to transfer more and more forces from the Gaza and Lebanon arenas in favor of the West Bank.
Apparently, the IDF will require more reserve soldiers in the coming days; meanwhile, more and more regular soldiers who completed 32 months of full service received, in the middle of their discharge leave and even before they handed in their military ID, a 'Tzav 8' (emergency call-up) for the day after their formal discharge from the IDF during the month of August.
