Israeli Official: More than 1 Million Lebanese to be Evacuated in Future War
The Israeli army would seek to evacuate more than a million civilians in southern Lebanon before striking Hizbullah targets in the area, a senior military official has said.
The source, who was not identified, told the Jerusalem Post daily published on Thursday that large-scale Hizbullah rocket and missile fire would be met with civilian evacuations, massive Israeli aerial strikes, followed by a ground offensive.
“If we have no choice, we have to evacuate 1 million, 1.5 million residents in Lebanon, and act,” the source said. “Hizbullah should not plan to fire on us and try to kill our civilians, and expect that we would respond by acting according to standards it seems to think only exist here.”
Failure to evacuate the civilian population would result in many thousands of non-combatant deaths, according to Israeli army assessments.
The official spoke as the Israeli military approached the conclusion of a week-long drill simulating conflict on multiple fronts, including the Israeli airforce, said the newspaper.
Israelis officials have repeatedly warned of a new conflict with Hizbullah, vowing to strike the party's strongholds which could result in a large number of civilian casualties.
They claim that Hizbullah is building up its firepower since the 2006 war between the party and Israel.
The officials also continuously accuse the party of using the civilians as a human shield.
The Israeli source told the Jerusalem Post that Hizbullah is “in distress” in Syria and is in strategic trouble despite attempts by its Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to deliver morale-boosting speeches.
Hizbullah has been fighting rebels and jihadists from al-Nusra Front, al-Qaida's Syria affiliate, in Qalamoun, the mountainous border area north of Damascus.
It said on Wednesday that it was tightening the noose around the last remaining jihadist pockets along the Lebanese-Syrian border.
G.K.
H.K.
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://naharnet.com/stories/en/181011 |