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.
04 June 2015, 08:44
106
Israel, Hamas, Ebola, the Butcher and all warmongers have a black soul.
04 June 2015, 10:52
610
What a load of crap. No people will go to Israel. They should rather care about evacuating Haifa and Tel Aviv for the next war.
04 June 2015, 11:13
105
I think you (or Naharnet) got it all wrong if they think that Israel will evacuate one million lebanese into Israel! Of course it will be the same old, the million will go from south Lebanon to Beirut where they will occupy every available space. Not in Dahiye of course, because that place will be bombed to pieces just like the last time. They have to go to the christian areas for help as usual.
It might well be that the israeli military source was speaking of evacuating a million civilian Israelis if a war should start. Or like I said he meant lebanese "evacuated" to Beirut.
04 June 2015, 12:59
710
Israel seems to forget the sirens of 2006. Next time will not be the same for them, they will be able to destroy alot of Lebanon sure, but their homes aswell be crushed.
04 June 2015, 13:17
105
For sure, it will not be the same for Hezbollah and its civilian hostages either. I take it for granted that IDF has learned their lesson from the draw due to their approach of softness back in 2006. The next time it will be terrible for civilians on both sides of the borders for sure, but with areal supremacy for the israelis in addition to more firepower overall it is no doubt who will be hit the hardest. Will Hezbollah play with the lives of innocent lebanese in the faint hope of another draw? I hope not. I got family and friends down there. I may even be there myself the day Nassrallah in his underground bunker decides its time for another game.
04 June 2015, 13:26
105
you do remember that in 2006 when the cease fire was called Israel had reached and occupied everything ip to the litani river. they only pulled out after 2 to 3 months until unifil replaced them. i also remember over 1200 Lebanese civilians died. do you remember that part ??? or because Nasrallah declared victory thats all you remember "Israeli sirens"
04 June 2015, 14:40
103
Commonly speaking, you wrote without thinking much ya Mystic in your usual bombast. In those cities you mentioned, the Israelis have built miles of fully equipped underground shelters that have been designed to sustain its citizens for months on end. The inhabitants of these cities will not vacate but simply walk to these shelters. Haven't you by any chance seen their repeated drills? Haven't you also researched what is known as collateral damage? The Israelis may have had some problems convincing its citizens some years ago that an unusual death toll is inevitable in case of war with Hamas or Hezbollah, but now after 2006 and 2014, the psyche has filtered down to the minds of Israelis, who before that were not used but for comparatively small numbers of casualties in their wars with the Arabs. Israel being a democracy must teaspoon feed its citizenry with these changes, and once done, God help you and us all.
04 June 2015, 13:32
104
(1). Joke apart, I've noticed the different posts and opinions voiced over this thread, but the problem remains the same. In Lebanon our misery continues because armed militias are the ones who are taking the decision of war and peace, and the Lebanese state is simply cast aside. Before and thanks to that utterly dumb law then known as the Cairo Agreement, the PLO had the right to attack Israel form our territories, (leylou mila maskharah). Now not to make a story too long, we all know the catastrophes that landed on our country as a result of the state's emasculation, including the resulting civil war. The PLO was kicked out in 1982 only to be replaced by another militia, Hezbollah. Hezbollah was Lebanese then and apparently had the right to resist Israeli occupation and aggression, but then Israel too got booted out in May 2000.
04 June 2015, 13:36
106
(2). If then Hezbollah did the right thing thereafter, sat with the government and with the other Lebanese parties and started its reintegration process, by today we would not be in so much mess. Sadly then Hezbollah could have said that it was not master of its own fate since Syria was the other occupant and a lot more ruthless than Israel. But then in 2005, Syria's turn came to get booted and kicked out of Lebanon, this is when our real tragedy started. Hezbollah threw its entire weight behind Bachar Assad's government and refused any kind of dialog with the state or with the other parties. Then came 2006 as we know. The fact remains, Hezbollah is still the militia that decides war and peace in Lebanon, it is the one that is the main shadow over our future. If only Hezbollah did what it should have done, today Israel would have ZERO claim over us.
04 June 2015, 13:54
104
(3). Bachar Assad is fighting for his own survival when after he missed out on a real peace deal with Israel before. Jordan and Egypt have their peace deals with Israel and have been unshakable for decades, even radical Islamist then-president Morsi closely guarded this deal. Several Arab countries have established diplomatic links with Israel, except of course Lebanon, who because of Hezbollah will remain to fight Israel till every war has been fought in the globe just to keep Hezbollah alive and with reasons for its continued presence. We may say many things about Israel and Hezbollah, but there are realities that we cannot and must not discount, no nation, no state could accept to live with a militia pointing its weapons and missiles towards it.
04 June 2015, 13:59
104
(4). Reality is that sooner or later and after all alleys of the psychological warfare have been exhausted between Israel one the one side and Hezbollah and its backers on the other side, the day will come when the unexpected, or rather the expected unexpected will arrive. We may now joke or quibble sarcastically over a pending situation, but after what we've seen in Gaza last year, no one can ever take matters for granted. For every bomb Israel threw on Gaza, it will throw 100 on us. Gaza is always the indicator of Israel's intent on us and this time if Sayed Hassan wants to tell us again another "Law a3lamet", the Lebanese themselves could well finish him off.
04 June 2015, 14:08
105
(5). The last war in 2006, matters started so unexpectedly, all out of the blue. But fact was that Beirutis and other parts of Lebanon openly welcomed our siblings from the South and Al Dahieh. Many of us volunteered and poured resources because the goodwill towards Hezbollah and its partisans was still strong. There was no Syrian war, no Yemeni war, no invasion of West Beirut, there were very few assassinations of M14 figures and more issues of divisions between the bulk of the Lebanese and Hezbollah, but today in 2015, does the same hold true? Is there any more goodwill towards Hezbollah or our Shiite siblings for that matter? Would we welcome them again, especially now that Lebanon is awash with Syrian and Palestinian refugees?
05 June 2015, 11:13
60
The sunnis will never forget how they have been treated by Kizb & their thugs, ALL around lebanon,the manipulation of the Lebanese army as well to fight sunnis etc, I held my breath praying the sunnis dont leave the army because of Kibz plotting. You are very right, they may not be as welcoming, or lets hope they show the hand of mercy & let bygons be bygons and prove when the Shia need them, as lebanese, they will be there
04 June 2015, 14:12
104
(6). Isn't it more like that we shall harbor more empathy than sympathy towards them tis time, especially in view of another major if not massive catastrophe mainly caused by Hezbollah? Wouldn't people come to say that Israel gave us ample warnings and ample time to avoid another onslaught? What would people like Sayed Hassan have to say? Would the Shiite or Metwelehs oppose his leadership thereafter? And what about the reaction of the Lebanese who now truly and genuinely oppose Hezbollah, which way would they go? Can anyone predict with certainty? In normal times one could have said that between us Lebanese we could have convinced Hezbollah to do what is right, but in light of its known intransigences, one could only guess when the next war will come. What will not need any guessing though is the fact that Lebanon this time will never look the same again.
04 June 2015, 17:38
111
God willing one day the time will come when righteous people from every corner of the world will realise this Zionist entity is a blight on humanity and dismantle it . How can any person with any intelligence accept this inhuman Zionist entity how can anyone justify its existence.
