Israeli General: Potential War with Hezbollah Will Lead to Destruction of Lebanon

A senior Israeli army general warned on Wednesday, April 20, that any future war between Israel and Hezbollah would result in widespread destruction for Lebanon. According to the Associated Press, General Yair Golan, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, stated that Hezbollah's capability to 'create danger for Israel' has increased unprecedentedly. He mentioned that Hezbollah's arsenal now contains one hundred thousand missiles and rockets. In an interview with foreign journalists, General Golan warned Hezbollah that the 'upcoming war' could be 'much worse than the experiences of the last twenty years.' He added that 'in any potential crisis, a war that occurs in Lebanon will not be small; it will be extensive and will be a war that will settle the matter.' The Deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli army stated that Israel would not hesitate to strike civilian infrastructure in Lebanon in the next war, causing significant damage to homes and urban facilities, as Hezbollah operates and hides within residential areas. The last war between the Israeli army and Hezbollah occurred in the summer of 2006, following an attack by Hezbollah forces on Israeli soldiers, killing eight soldiers and abducting the bodies of two others. In the 33-day war of 2006, while Israel suffered only 160 casualties, most of whom were military, it claimed to have killed 1,200 Lebanese, asserting that many of them were Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah and Lebanon emphasized that the majority of the casualties were civilians. Meanwhile, in that war, which Hezbollah named 'The Promised Victory,' the organization claimed to have 'broken the spider web of Israel.' After the 33-day war, the Islamic Republic of Iran established a 'Lebanon Reconstruction Headquarters' and sent Hossein Shateri, a senior commander of the IRGC, to Lebanon to compensate for much of the damage to the country's infrastructure. Mr. Shateri, known in Lebanon as 'Hassan Shateri,' was killed in an airstrike; Iran and Hezbollah attributed this assassination to Israel. The severe warning from the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli army to Hezbollah came three days after an unprecedented meeting of the Israeli government in the occupied Golan Heights, near the border with Syria and Lebanon. In the 49 years since the occupation of the Golan Heights, no meeting has ever been held by the Israeli government in this area. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Sunday that 'the world must come to terms with Israel's eternal dominance over this region'; his request was sharply criticized by the United States, France, Germany, the European Union, the UN Secretary-General, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Arab League announced it would hold an emergency meeting on the matter. However, the 'warning' from the senior Israeli military commander to Hezbollah comes at a time when the group's position in the region has become precarious; on one hand, Hezbollah has suffered heavy casualties due to its years of presence in Syria defending Bashar al-Assad's regime, and on the other hand, dozens of Arab and Islamic countries have recently labeled the group as 'terrorist.' Initially, the Gulf Cooperation Council designated Hezbollah as terrorist; then, the Arab League issued a similar resolution last month, and last week, Hezbollah was condemned at a summit of 53 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul. Hezbollah's media emphasized in recent weeks that the actions of some Arab and Islamic countries against the organization contradict the public opinion of those countries regarding Hezbollah. Supporters and media of Hezbollah have recently assessed that labeling Hezbollah as terrorist 'with Saudi encouragement' is preparing the ground for an Israeli attack on the group. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran, stated on Wednesday that 'Hezbollah is the pride of the Islamic world' and 'today Hezbollah shows its robust body in the Islamic world, and its condemnation on a scrap of paper by a corrupt, hollow, and empty government is of no importance.' Ayatollah Khamenei did not mention a specific country, but all evidence suggests he was referring to Saudi Arabia. In this context, the Gulf Cooperation Council labeled Hezbollah as a terrorist group, Saudi Arabia sanctioned four companies and three Lebanese individuals for their alleged connections to Hezbollah, and representatives of Hezbollah deemed the labeling of the group as 'invalid.'