Hezbollah’s Escalation in the Conflict with Israel: A New Phase with Strategic Dimensions

Political experts and analysts believe that targeting the Lebanese Hezbollah-occupied city of Haifa represents an unprecedented escalation in the conflict with Israel and indicates that the conflict has entered a new phase with strategic dimensions.

Analysts affirm that the development reveals Hezbollah’s advanced capabilities and the failure of Israeli efforts to effectively weaken it, while at the same time pointing to the major challenges Israel faces in dealing with this growth.

Hezbollah’s Advanced Capabilities

Hezbollah announced Sunday morning that it had bombed an Israeli military industrial complex north of the city of Haifa with dozens of missiles in an initial response to pager and radio blasts.

A party statement indicated that it targeted “the military industrial complexes of the Rafael Company, which specializes in electronic means and equipment, located in the Juvulon area north of the city of Haifa, along with dozens of Fadi 1, Fadi 2 and Katyusha rockets.”

Israel’s Failure to Score

The military and strategic expert, Colonel Hatim Karim al-Falahi, confirmed that the strike launched by Hezbollah today is a very big advance considering a strategic aspect, targeting targets such as an air base and a weapons factory.

Al-Falahi noted that Israel had recently ordered a series of strikes against Hezbollah, targeting the organization’s central nerve, killing many of its leaders and hitting key joints related to communications and command and control systems.

According to al-Falahi, the attack was aimed at greatly weakening Hezbollah’s morale and military capabilities, considering that the party’s strikes were a clear indication that although Israel’s attacks affected Hezbollah’s organizational structure, the party remained capable of defeating them.

Alternative Plans

Lebanese writer, researcher and political analyst Dr. Ali Ahmed believes that Israel has passed many stations in the months-long war where they have gone to war with Lebanon.

Ahmed believes that the occupation today faces a new challenge in the form of a far-reaching war with Lebanon that could lead to a regional war for which it is not prepared, and he considers that the costs are too high to bear.

Ahmed noted that Hezbollah knew that Israel would lead to this kind of escalation by entering the war, and that it would have to make a lot of sacrifices, so it developed a plan to deal with it and overcome the issue in a matter of hours.

Political Goals

Muhannad Mustafa, an expert on Israeli affairs, believes Haifa’s inclusion in the equation was expected for Israel, as it lives under the delusion that it can end Hezbollah’s power with one or two strikes in a matter of days.

Mustafa added that Israeli estimates indicate that Hezbollah’s capabilities are great, it has great military experience and is capable of retaliating against Israel not only in the north but as far south as Haifa.

Mustafa noted that Israel is fully aware that it will not be able to defeat Hezbollah militarily and is not under the illusion that it can withstand Hezbollah’s missiles.

In this context, he believes that Israel does not have a clear vision for these military operations, adding that Israel is going to expand with purely internal political goals, because Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are under very intense internal pressure on two levels.