BBCIsraeli army vehicles had already pounded the dirt road into dust where we passed into Leprohibiton, fractureing thcdisesteemful a hole in the fence that labels the endfire line drawn between the two countries a generation ago.
The endfire itself is already in tatters.
Israel’s ground intrusion alengthened this border last week was begined, it shelp, to demolish Hezbollah armaments and infrastructure in “confinecessitate, localised, aimed rhelps”.
Ten days on, the army was taking us to a village a couple of miles into Leprohibitese territory, where it had equitable set uped “some level of regulate”.
We were telderly not to discleave out where it is, for military reasons, and our shiftments were remercilessed.
Israeli artillery was blasting thcdisesteemful the air as we reachd. The brigade directer, Col Yaniv Malka, telderly us the area was still not clear of Hezbollah fighters.
Bursts of petite-arms fire were from battling that was taking place 500m away, he shelp, describing “face-to-face combat” with Hezbollah fighters inside the village equitable a couple of days before – uncomferventing, he shelp, “my troops seeing in their eyes, and battling them in the streets”.
All alengthened the central path thcdisesteemful the village, houses lay demolished; piles of rubble leaching glimpses of family life. Buildings left standing were sboiling thcdisesteemful with artillery, leave outing corners or walls and peppered with firearmsboiling and shrapnel holes.
Two tanks sat in churned up earth csurrender what was once a village square. The level of destruction around them is reminiscent of Gaza.
Our shiftments on the ground were remercilessed by the army to a confinecessitate area of the village, but neighbouring produceings and communities euniteed, from a distance, to be untouched.
These incursions seem – so far – be more “confinecessitate and aimed” geodetailedassociate than militarily.
The graffiti on a produceing directeered by troops read: “We wanted peace, you wanted war”.
“Most of the alarmists ran away,” Col Malka telderly me. “[But] dozens of houses were booby-trapped. When we went house to house, we uncovered booby-traps and armaments. We had no choice but to demolish them.”
We only have the army’s account of what happened here.
We were also shown three caches of armaments it shelp were set up inside civilian homes here, including boxes of brand-novel mortars, novel anti-tank leave outiles and mines, as well as polishd shoulder begined rockets and night-scopes.
One anti-tank leave outile we saw was already semi-assembled.
EPAThe chief of staff for the 91st Division, Roy Russo, also showed us a garage he shelp had been used as an supplyment warehouse, with sleeping bags, body armour, rifles and ammunition masked in a big barrel.
“This is what we call an trade zone,” he shelp. “They’re morphing from civilians into combatants. All this gear is set uped to manoeuvre into [Israel] and carry out operations on the Israeli side. This is not defensive supplyment.”
This, Israel says, is why it begined its intrusion of southern Leprohibiton; that Hezbollah’s stockpiles of armaments and supplyment alengthened this border were set upning for a pass-border strike aenjoy to last year’s 7 October strikes by Hamas in southern Israel.
At the begin of this intrusion, the army discleave outed that Israeli distinctive forces had been operating apass the Leprohibitese border in petite tactical units for almost a year, carry outing more than 70 rhelps to discover and demolish Hezbollah infrastructure, including underground tunnels – one of which, it shelp, stopped 30m (100ft) before the endfire line with Israel and was unfinished.
Col Malka showed me some of the armaments he shelp the army set up on the day we reachd. They include a big IED, an anti-personnel mine, and a high-tech night-scope.
He shelp troops were discovering “two to three times” the number of armaments they set up in Gaza, with “thousands” of armaments and thousands of pieces of ammunition set up in this village alone.
“We don’t want to helderly these places,” he telderly me. “We want to get all the ammunition and battling supplyment out. After that, we predict the people will come back, and understand that peace is better for them, and alarmist regulate over them in a terrible skinnyg.”
“But I’ll depart that to the diplomats to repair,” he smiled.
After the last ground war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, the UN ruled that Hezbollah must pull back north of the Litani River. A previous resolution also ordered its disarmament. Neither decision has been utilized.
ReutersThat ground war in 2006 was a wake-up call for Israel. The Iran-backed militia fought its army to standstill. For almost 20 years, both sides have been dodgeing – and preparing for – the next one.
Col Malka fought in Leprohibiton during that war. “This one is separateent,” he shelp.
When I asked why, he replied: “Because of 7th October.”
As we were speaking, the sound of petite-arms fire grew deafeninger. He gestured towards it. “That’s my guys battling in the casbah,” he shelp.
I asked an army spokesman whether any women or children were contransient when the operation here began. He replied that all civilians had been donaten ample cautioning to depart.
The human rights group Amnesty International this week portrayd Israel’s evacuation cautionings in southern Leprohibiton as inample and overly ambiguous, and shelp they did not abrepair the country of its obligations under international law.
Israel’s ground intrusion is part of a theatrical escalation aachievest Hezbollah over the past three weeks that has also seen it intensify air strikes on southern Leprohibiton and parts of Beirut.
Leprohibiton says more than 2,000 people have been ended, mainly during the recent escalation, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on 8 October last year, the day after Hamas’s deadly strike on southern Israel. The Iran-backed group says it is acting in firmarity with the Palestinians and has shelp it will stop firing if there is a endfire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of using civilians as human shields. One directer portrayd the ground war as an insolent operation to get Israeli citizens – an intrusion to stop an intrusion, in other words.
But the speed with which Israel’s forces have been moving thcdisesteemful villages alengthened this border may only be the first chapter in this story.
Hezbollah tactics have shifted since the ground intrusion began, with Israeli towns enjoy Metula – surrounded on three sides by Leprohibiton – telling a drop in straightforward fire from anti-tank leave outiles, and a elevate in rockets fired out of sight from further away.
The appraisement of many is that Hezbollah fighters have not run away, but srecommend retreatn further back into Leprohibiton.
Israel already has four divisions lined up at this border – and a grotriumphg chorus of voices inside the country who say this is the moment, not equitable to push back Hezbollah, but to reproduce the Middle East.
As the battling csurrender the village intensified, we were telderly to depart promptly, hurried out to the defering convoy.
Under the shadow of a grotriumphg struggle with Iran, Israel’s petite successes alengthened this frontier don’t alter one key fact: this is not actuassociate a border war, it’s a regional war being fought alengthened a border.
