Israel has cleared landmines and established barriers, signaling an intensification in the war against Hezbollah.
According to security officials and analysts, Israel’s military have cleared landmines and erected new obstacles on the border between the Golan Heights and a demilitarised zone that borders Syria, suggesting that the country may increase its ground operations against Hezbollah while fortifying its own defences.
According to the sources, Israel may attempt to launch its first attack on Hezbollah from a location farther east along Lebanon’s border, while also setting up a safe haven from which it can easily scout the armed group and stop infiltration.
While demining activity has been documented, additional unreported details were disclosed by sources who spoke with Reuters, including a Syrian soldier stationed in south Syria, a Lebanese security official, and a UN peacekeeping official. These details showed Israel was excavating additional fortifications in the area and moving the DMZ fence towards the Syrian side.
The war between Israel and Hezbollah and its partner Hamas, which has already pulled in Iran and runs the risk of sucking in the US, might intensify if military action is taken in the form of attacks from the Golan and possibly from the demilitarised zone that divides it from Syrian land.
Since Hezbollah started firing missiles across Lebanon’s border to support Hamas following their fatal strike on southern Israel, the two groups have been exchanging fire. Israel started its military offensive against Gaza.
‘Prepare the groundwork’
Now, in addition to Israeli aerial strikes that have caused Hezbollah significant damage in the past month, the group is under Israeli ground assault from the south and faces Israeli naval shelling from the Mediterranean to the west.
By extending its front in the east, Israel could tighten its squeeze on Hezbollah’s arms supply routes, some of which cut across Syria, Lebanon’s eastern neighbor and an ally of Iran.
The actions in the Golan, a high 1,200 square kilometre plateau that borders Jordan and overlooks Lebanon, seem to be an attempt to “prepare the groundwork” for a larger onslaught in Lebanon, according to Navvar Saban, a conflict analyst at the Harmoon Centre in Istanbul.
“Everything happening in Syria is to serve Israel’s strategy in Lebanon – hitting supply routes, hitting warehouses, hitting people linked to the supply lines to Hezbollah,” he stated.
According to three senior Lebanese security officials who spoke with Reuters for this story, a Syrian intelligence officer, a Syrian soldier stationed in southern Syria, and other sources, Israel’s engineering and mine clearance efforts have picked up steam in recent weeks.
Fortifications
The sources stated that as Israel started ground incursions on October 1 to combat Hezbollah in the rocky territory dividing northern Israel from southern Lebanon around 20 km (12 miles) to the west, the demining had been more intense.
According to two Syrian and one Lebanese source, during the same period, Russian military units stationed in southern Syria in support of Syrian troops there withdrew from at least one observation post overlooking the demilitarised zone. Israel has also increased its strikes on Syria, including its capital and the border with Lebanon.
All of the individuals discussed their observation of Israel’s military actions in the Golan, which it largely captured from Syria in 1967, while speaking under anonymity.
