IDF Northern Command head: Hezbollah to pay ‘heavy price’ in future war
15 years after Second Lebanon War, army warns it has thousands of terrorist targets ready to be attacked
Fifteen years after the second lebanon war, both the idF and hezbollah continue to rattle sabers and warn the other side that any future war between the two foes would be deadlier than ever.
“after the second lebanon war, hezbollah learned a lesson that has held for 15 years,” said oc northern command maj.-Gen. amir Baram, adding that “if there is another war, they will pay a much higher price.”
in the close to two decades since the war, both sides have significantly increased their capabilities, which will cause untold damage and cause significant casualties to both sides.
while hezbollah claimed to have lost 250 fighters during the war, other figures put the hezbollah death toll at more than 600. over a thousand lebanese civilians were killed and thousands more evacuated from lebanon.
with the help of iran, the group has rebuilt its arsenal since 2006. it is estimated that hezbollah has 130,000-150,000 rockets and missiles, many that can reach deep into israel, including ballistic missiles with a range of 700 kilometers.
hezbollah’s project to build accurate and precise missiles, which is done using iranian know-how, funding and guidance, has been targeted by israel on numerous occasions in syria – and according to foreign reports in iraq and lebanon as well – as part of its “war between the wars” campaign.
it is believed that in the next war, the terrorist group will try to fire some 1,500-3,000 rockets per day until the last day of the conflict.
while the primary threat posed by hezbollah remains its missile arsenal, the idF believes that the next war will see the
group trying to bring the fight to the home front by infiltrating israeli communities to inflict significant civilian and military casualties.
with more than 40,000 fighters organized in battalions and brigades, hezbollah forces have gained battlefield experience from fighting in syria. the group’s elite radwan unit, which was established to carry out covert operations against
king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the House of the Lord, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down the house of every notable person,” reads the last chapter of the Book of Kings II.
For the archaeologist, uncovering the remains was very emotional, as related by Dr. Filip Vukosavovic of the Ancient Jerusalem Research Center, a codirector of the excavation with Dr. Joe Uziel and Ortal Chalaf on behalf of the IAA.
“When we exposed the first part of the wall, an area about 1 m. per 1 m. large, I immediately understood what we had found,” he said. “I almost cried.”
Indeed, the remains not only present an incredible testimony about centuries of life in Jerusalem and their tragic end but they also solved a decadeslong archaeological mystery. During excavations in the area led by British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon in the 1960s and by archaeologist Yigal Shiloh in the 1970s, remains of a massive wall were unearthed in two different spots of the slope. However, since the two structures did not appear to be connected, most scholars did not believe that they were part of a city wall, whose presence was described in the Bible but still needed to be proven by archaeological evidence.
“Now we can say with certainty that the city wall did exist, at least on the eastern slope,” Vukosavovic said. Since the eastern slope represented the most difficult approach to access Jerusalem, it is safe to assume that also the rest of the city was surrounded by a wall, he added.
“The city wall protected Jerusalem from a number of attacks during the reign of the kings of Judah, until the
arrival of the Babylonians who managed to break through it and conquer the city,” said Vukosavovic, Uziel and Chalaf.
While the newly uncovered section still has to be dated independently (“We are working on getting some radiocarbon dating,” Vukosavovic noted), the other two sections were built around the eighth century BCE, in a period also known as the First Temple period.
Behind the remains of the wall, the ruins of some houses are still visible.
“In one, we found ashes that we believe date back to the Babylonian invasion,” said Vukosavovic.
In addition, the archaeologists uncovered multiple artifacts that offer a glimpse into the daily life of Jerusalem when the wall was still standing, and after its fall in 586 BCE: fragments of pots, pans and other vessels, seal impressions, some of them carrying inscriptions – for example, “lamelech” (to the king), which was usually featured on jars used for tax collection. A small Babylonian seal stamp made in stone was also found.
“Maybe it was dropped by one of the soldiers, or maybe it belonged to a Jerusalemite who liked Babylonian-style objects, or maybe it dates back to a later period and was owned by those who lived in the city after its destruction,” Vukosavovic remarked.
WHILE THE wall on the eastern slope remained standing – to the point that centuries later it would be used as a foundation for new buildings – Jerusalem was burned down, the Temple destroyed, and the Jews sent into exile.
Similarly, this happened again some 500 years later – when the city was again thriving – this time at the hands of the Romans. The second destruction took place on the ninth day of Av, on the same date as the first. This year that day falls on this coming Sunday.
To this day, Jews all over the world fast and mourn the loss of Jerusalem, commemorating these days of war and destruction millennia ago, as witnessed by the archaeologists’ new finds of ancient white stones.