Israel Expects Escalation of Tension with Hizbullah, Trains for Urban and Guerilla Warfare
Israeli officials have expressed fears that Hizbullah will try to escalate the tension on the Lebanese border by organizing civilian demonstrations as part of an effort to launch a popular uprising against the Jewish state.
Haaretz newspaper said that Defense Minister Ehud Barak met on Monday with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and told him that Israel was concerned by the developments on the border and latest Hizbullah statements and moves.
The Lebanese foreign ministry has sent a letter to the United Nations blaming Israel for the explosion of a weapons cache in the southern village of Khirbet Selm, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported Monday.
Senior Israeli army officials are highly concerned about the possibility of a serious incident on the Lebanese border in the near future, Haaretz said.
It said tensions with Hizbullah have risen lately, especially since one of the party”s alleged arms depots blew up almost two weeks ago in Khirbet Selm. In response, defense officials have held several high-level consultations on the situation.
However, Israeli army officials believe Hizbullah will most likely try to strike Israeli targets abroad rather than attacking the Jewish state from the southern Lebanese border, according to Haaretz.
Senior military officers believe that Hizbullah has fully rebuilt its network of bunkers and arms stockpiles in south Lebanon, but has located them almost entirely inside Shiite villages rather than in open areas, the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post said that the Israeli army is creating a new training regimen for infantry troops to prepare them for a combination of urban and guerrilla warfare by building special training centers in military bases across the country.
Shortly after the 2006 war, the Israeli army built a replica of a Hizbullah "nature reserve" – a forested area where the group had dug bunkers and deployed rocket launchers – to train troops. Now, the military is building an urban warfare center – consisting of a mock Lebanese village – which it plans to connect to the replica of the nature reserve, according to the Post.