Senior Occupying Army Officers Deny Leadership’s Claims of Destroying Hezbollah’s Capabilities / Calls for a Ground Offensive Among Entity Leaders… Military Officials Advise a Gaza Agreement

September 25, 2024

Albinaa’ Newspaper Headlines

The political editor wrote

The trajectory of the war is becoming clearer, though it seems far from over. The failure of the knockout-strategy designed to cripple Hezbollah prompted a quick shift of the war’s dynamics. After Lebanon experienced a day full of bloodshed and continued airstrikes and displacement, the resistance seized the initiative and took control of the battlefield. Now, resistance missiles – not occupation’s airstrikes – dominate the scene. The missiles and drones are impacting an area that stretches 65 kilometres deep and 90 kilometres wide, amounting to 5,500 square kilometres, which is more than half the size of Lebanon and fifteen times the size of Gaza. This region, from the Lebanese border to northern West Bank and Hadera, north of Tel Aviv, has effectively become a combat zone, void of the hustle and bustle of life. Schools, businesses, government offices, and tourist sites have shut down, and the residents have either taken shelter or fled, unable to endure the pressure.

Statements from the occupying entity’s leaders – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence minister, the chief of staff, and the army spokesperson – claiming to have destroyed Hezbollah’s capabilities have become a subject of mockery on Hebrew social media. Images of fires and destruction caused by resistance missiles are shared alongside quotes from the entity’s leaders that read “we have destroyed half of Hezbollah’s missile capabilities”. This has forced senior army officers to publicly issue denials and statements that contradict the political leaders, in which they admit that destroying Hezbollah’s strategic weaponry is impossible, and that the military has no knowledge of where these weapons are hidden.

Within the occupying entity’s leadership, the conversation about continuing the military operation persists, with more airstrikes being planned – essentially repeating the tactics used in Gaza. The world is now familiar with the same tired excuse: the resistance hides weapons among civilians and uses them as human shields. This criminal narrative is increasingly being disregarded as a justification for massacres of civilians and the murder of more women and children.

As talk of a necessary ground offensive grows in response to the failure of airstrikes to decisively win the battle, senior military officers are becoming increasingly concerned. Recalling the failure of the 2006 war, they are aware that conditions of a ground battle are not conducive for winning – conditions, which are now even more favourable for the resistance. Merely speaking of a win against Hezbollah lacks any basis, given they couldn’t win against Hamas, especially that all differentiating factors are in Hezbollah’s favour. According to senior officers, as reported by Channel 12, reaching an agreement to end the war in the south might be necessary to prevent the war from escalating in the north.