Israeli forces have intensified training for another war with the Hizbullah, the World Tribune reported on its website.
It quoted officials in Tel Aviv as saying that Israel army has formulated a training course that would prepare combat troops to rapidly cross into Lebanon and overcome Hizbullah”s network of bunkers and tunnels south of the Litani River. They said the training was meant to significantly shorten any future war with Hizbullah.
"We were totally unprepared for the last (2006) war, and we took weeks learning on the job," one official said. "This time, we intend to confront Hizbullah, knowing exactly its assets and capabilities."
The Tribune said the Israeli army has constructed training centers that included mock villages and mountain regions meant to resemble southern Lebanon. One training center consisted of an urban facility as well as an area that replicated the hilly region of the Shebaa Plateau, it said.
"Hizbullah has restored its network of safe houses, tunnels and bunkers," the Tribune quoted the official as saying. "This would enable Hizbullah fighters to enter one house and come out of another entrance nearly a kilometer away."
Officials said the Israeli military has accelerated exercise amid an alert along Israel”s northern border with Lebanon. They said Hizbullah and the Lebanese Army have been coordinating forces south of the Litani River.
One of the new Israeli training centers, according to the Tribune, was planned for the Elyakim base in the Lower Galilee. The military also plans bases at Lachish in southern Israel, it said.
The Israeli army has also been developing urban warfare centers in which live fire would be employed, the report said. It said the two centers, monitored by hundreds of surveillance cameras, would contain 18 structures made of rubber that would absorb live fire.