Haifa, Israel:
Eli Harel was an Israeli soldier in his early 30s when he was sent to Lebanon in 2006 to fight fighters from the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in a bloody, largely inconclusive month-long war.
Now 50, Harel is ready to rejoin the army to fight the same group if the shelling along Israel's northern border turns into an outright war with Iran's most powerful regional proxy. This time, Israel's armed forces would face some of the most challenging combat conditions imaginable, he said.
“There are booby traps everywhere,” he told Reuters. “People are emerging from tunnels. You have to be constantly alert, otherwise you're dead.”
Harel lives in Haifa, Israel's third largest city, well within reach of Hezbollah's weapons. Haifa's mayor recently urged residents to stockpile food and medicine amid the growing risk of all-out war.
Israel and Hezbollah have been involved in escalating daily cross-border attacks over the past six months – parallel to the war in Gaza – and their increasing reach and sophistication have fueled fears of a broader regional conflict.
Hezbollah has amassed a formidable arsenal since 2006.
Like Hamas, the militant Palestinian group fighting Israel in Gaza, Hezbollah has a network of tunnels to move fighters and weapons. The fighters have also been training with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces for more than a decade.
Hezbollah has so far limited its attacks to a strip of northern Israel in an effort to draw Israeli troops out of Gaza. Israel has said it is prepared to push Hezbollah back from the border, but it is unclear how.
'Exiles in your own country'
About 60,000 residents have been forced to leave their homes in northern Israel's first mass evacuation and cannot return safely, sparking increased calls within Israel for stronger military action against Hezbollah. Across the border in Lebanon, about 90,000 people have also been displaced by Israeli attacks.
Eyal Hulata, a former Israeli national security adviser, said Israel should announce a date in the coming months for displaced Israeli citizens to return, effectively challenging Hezbollah to scale back its shelling or face all-out war.
“Israelis cannot be in exile in their own country. This can't happen. It is the responsibility of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) to defend civilians. That is what we did not do on October 7,” he said, referring to the Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked the current war in Gaza
Hezbollah did not respond to a request for comment. The group's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said in February that residents of northern Israel “will not return” to their homes.
The Israeli military said this month it had taken a new step in preparing for a possible war with Hezbollah, focusing on logistics, including preparations for a “broad mobilization” of reservists.
A conflict between Israel and Hezbollah would likely result in massive destruction in both countries. The 2006 war killed 1,200 people in Lebanon and 158 in Israel.
Since October, more than 300 people have been killed in fighting in the border area, mainly Hezbollah fighters.
If war were to break out, Israel would likely bomb targets in southern Lebanon before soldiers attempted to push at least 6 miles (10 kilometers) across the border. Hezbollah would likely use its estimated arsenal of more than 150,000 rockets to attack Israeli cities. In 2006, the group fired approximately 4,000 rockets into Israel.
'Immense' damage probably
Assaf Orion, a retired Israeli brigadier general, told Reuters that a war between Israel and Hezbollah is more likely to break out, caused by an unplanned escalation of clashes or by Israel losing patience with people who cannot return home.
Orion said the intensity of bombing in any war could be ten times greater than in Gaza.
“The damage will be enormous,” he said. “Gaza will look like a walk in the park compared to that level of fighting.”
Haifa, a port city built on the side of a mountain from which you can see the border with Lebanon on a clear day, was targeted in 2006. The worst attack killed eight people.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah could hit ammonia storage tanks in Haifa in 2016, saying the result would be “like an atomic bomb.”
The mood in Haifa is a mixture of fear and fatalism.
Hundreds of evacuated Israelis have moved to the city, with many saying another war may be the only way to return home.
Assaf Hessed, 35, who lived on a kibbutz two kilometers from the border, said the army has until September to force Hezbollah back or residents will move elsewhere.
“We need to make a decision quickly about where we are going to live, we can't continue like this for much longer,” he said.
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