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What’s changed since the ground war in 2006? | Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official and senior adviser on Arab affairs shares his assessments on the current conflict with Frank Gardner | September 30, 2024 – BBC News.
A lot. For a start, the Israeli military is a lot more capable and equipped with far better intelligence than it had when it went charging into south Lebanon in 2006.
It is also facing an enemy that has just had most of its leadership assassinated, its communications sabotaged and large numbers of its weapons and ammo dumps destroyed by air strikes.
But thousands of Hezbollah fighters remain, they are burning for revenge and they have been telling the world they welcome the chance to fight Israel on their home turf.
They will likely retain some powerful and sophisticated weapons like Russian-made anti-tank missiles that can take on an Israeli Merkava IV tank.
The former Israeli intelligence officer, Avi Melamed, told me: “Unlike in 2006 an Israeli ground incursion will now be facing a battle-hardened and trained Hezbollah fighting force seasoned from supporting Bashar Al-Assad’s forces in the Syrian Civil War.”
He believes they will “enjoy some level of home field advantage”.
Conversely, he points out that in Syria, Hezbollah enjoyed the benefit of Russian air cover. “Israel’s air superiority,” he says, ‘will be something new for them”.
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