The 36th Division of the Northern Command has already had time to forget about its maneuvers in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City at the beginning of the year and the opening of the Netzarim Corridor for the first time in November. The fighters of the Golani and 188th Brigades deployed on the Lebanese border in recent months have completed the final preparations to cross the border for the first time since the summer of 2006, and they are not alone.
The IDF's elite 98th Division, which led the raids in the Gaza Strip as part of the third phase of the fight against Hamas, was diverted to the north in the last month. In recent days the IDF has made several significant decisions and changes regarding its preparations, the purpose of which was to speed up and complete the preparations for the ground operation against Hezbollah.
"We have crossed the Rubicon; battalions and brigades are deep in combat procedures, and entire reserve units have carried out successful brigade exercises and adjustments from Gaza to Lebanon. We are far from a decision to enter Lebanon," a senior IDF officer assessed earlier Monday in a conversation with Ynet. "The soldiers are determined and alert; We also trained under fire in the north and there are fighters here who performed Sisyphean defense tasks and felt like caged lions. The great IDF trained and prepared and equipped over the years for the mastermind of enemy number one - Hezbollah."
2 View gallery
7th Brigade Combat Team exercise in the northern sector
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
At the political level there are those who are still debating and hesitating about whether to use the ground punch against Hezbollah in addition to the blows that the Shia terrorist army keeps taking from the Air Force. The IDF, for its part, presented to the cabinet renewed confidence in the infantry and tank soldiers who fought inside Gaza for many months and, despite the great attrition, many of the regiments, regular and reserve, have been re-energized and strengthened.
"The soldiers understand that there is no choice and this is the feeling among the commanders as well - there is no other way to return the residents of the north to their homes other than physically removing Hezbollah from the border area, and this can only be done with a ground entry," said the senior officer. Two preliminary signs of the operation have arrived in recent days: a report in the Wall Street Journal indicating that elite units of the IDF conducted preliminary raids in southern Lebanon, and a call by the IDF to the few residents remaining in towns and villages, such as in the Mount Dov area, to evacuate.
The IDF was able to convince the political echelon that the conditions for such a move are much better today than in October or November, based on the following data: the thousands of regular daily attacks by the Northern Command on Hezbollah's infrastructure and positions in southern Lebanon that have depleted a high percentage of the capabilities with which it was prepared to operate against the IDF; The removal of thousands of skilled Radwan force operatives to the north of the Litani River (one can assume that their movement back south will be detected by the IDF and will result in them being fired on); the evacuation of most of the Lebanese and Israeli citizens from the border areas and the severe blow that Hezbollah suffered in the pager attack and the elimination of its senior commanders which fatally damaged its command and control capabilities on ground combat operations against the IDF.
Northern Command prepares for combat in Lebanon
And yet, the IDF states, this will be a more difficult and complex maneuver than the one against Hamas, since Hezbollah has not yet used some of its capabilities, including the underground bunkers reserved for fighting against the IDF. It is estimated that the IDF has several options for ground action: the largest Includes an extensive reach up to the center of Lebanon, where Hezbollah has military outposts in the form of many launchers of precision missiles and long-range rockets and probably also facilities for the production of weapons.
Last month, the IDF announced for the first time that its plans also include the possibility of operations deep in Lebanon. The forces of the 98th Division, including the regular and reserve paratrooper brigades as well as the commando brigade (which went up almost entirely to the north) have the ability to perform with the capabilities of a prolonged independent stay in enemy territory without supplies.
Another alternative is a limited operation, in the style of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in 2014, to clear Hezbollah's presence in the kilometers adjacent to the border and occupy the territory in them until a cease-fire agreement is reached that will include the full withdrawal of the Lebanese army to these areas that observe and control the rockets trained on the Israeli side.
"That's the only way, when the residents see it with their own eyes and don't just hear about assassinations from afar and numbers of targets that were attacked from the air, trust will allow the return of the children to their homes after what happened on October 7," a security official said Monday.
There are those in the political elite who hesitate and hope that the international community led by the U.S. and France will now impose a cease-fire that will include implementation of UN Resolution 1701 from the end of the Second Lebanon War, which prohibits the presence of Hezbollah south of the Litani River.
2 View gallery
Defense Minister Yoav Galant, during a security review at the northern border, where he met with soldiers of the 188th and Golani brigades
(Photo: Shachar Yurman)
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has already hinted that his position is similar to that of the IDF, and he pushed with all his might to approve a ground operation against Hezbollah. The IDF will demand to proactively and aggressively enforce any such agreement in the future, even in days of calm, and to damage the establishment of a renewed position or presence of Hezbollah near the border; this goes against the government's policy of containment over the years, which allowed the Shiite terrorist organization to fully establish itself in southern Lebanon and its terrorists to reach the perimeter fence, alongside the establishment of dozens of terrorist outposts in front of the houses of Shlomi, Kiryat Shmona and Metula.