Army Chief: Hizbullah Could Choose to Strike Any Pinpoint Target in Israel
The head of Israel's armed forces has painted a grim picture of a future war in which the country could come under simultaneous attack in many ways, including from Hizbullah.
"The war could open with a surgical missile strike on the general staff building in the heart of the Kiriya (defense ministry complex) in Tel Aviv," Lieutenant General Benny Gantz told a conference in remarks broadcast by public radio on Wednesday.
"It is possible that there will be a cyber attack on a site supplying the daily needs of Israeli citizens; that traffic lights would stop working or the banks would be paralyzed," he added.
Gantz said that Hizbullah could pose a major threat.
"The accuracy of their missiles will increase dramatically, and if Hizbullah chooses to strike a pinpoint target, almost anywhere in Israel, it could do so," the military's website quoted him as saying.
Hizbullah fought the Jewish state in a 2006 showdown that killed some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and nearly 160 Israelis, most of them troops.
Gantz postulated that along with a missile hit on the military headquarters, patrols on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights could come under attack from Islamic militant groups.
"The Chief of Staff will be told that there are three kidnapped soldiers, one of whom is a battalion commander," he said.
"Responsibility for the incident will likely be taken by a terrorist organization, either from global Jihad or another organization without a specific affiliation.
"The pastoral landscape of the Golan Heights... could turn with a sudden bang into a battleground of blood, fire and pillars of smoke," Gantz added.
Israel seized the strategic northern plateau from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move the international community does not recognize.
The military website quoted Gantz as saying that while the scenarios he cited were all hypothetical, they were well within the realm of possibility.
"Sound imaginary?" he asked the audience of academics. "I don't believe so."
The remarks of Gantz came as an Israeli Minister announced that Hizbullah possesses more than 200,000 missiles capable of targeting any house in the Jewish state.
“According to an Israeli army worst-case scenario, Israel could find itself under attack from thousands of rockets that could last three weeks,” Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan said at the same conference at Bar-Ilan University, according to Israel Radio.
He pointed out that the “attack could last weeks if a war erupted in the region.”
Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has previously warned that the party’s missiles are now “capable of reaching vital targets inside Israel,” pointing out that the “Israelis themselves acknowledge Hizbullah’s missile power.”
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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