Hamas massacre 'just the start' as Israel braces for bloody Hezbollah attack
Northern Israel is bracing for a bloody Iran-backed Hezbollah attack amid escalating fears the Hamas massacre was “just the start.”
Close to Israel’s flashpoint northern border with Lebanon we saw a massive troop build-up and were warned Hezbollah’s death squads will come. On Wednesday as President Biden left Israel the entire northern frontier was desperately tense, with 5,000 “Radwan” Hezbollah commandos believed to be ready for attack on the other side.
A further 50,000 Hezbollah reservists are believed to be poised to join an appalling but coordinated assault across this beautiful valley if the invasion order is issued. Everybody we met saw the horrific October 7 Hamas massacres of innocent Israelis as a grisly prelude to a bigger, more evil Iranian plan of destruction.
But Israel is preparing for a war on two - maybe even more - fronts and is rushing troops and armour to the northern front, as it prepares to ground-attack Gaza in the south. We saw close to a squadron of Israeli Merkava main battle tanks secreted in a bushy area by the side of the road as we headed north to the border.
Mirror's Chris interviews Lt Colonel Sarit Zehavi (Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)These armoured beasts were parked up, troops chatting away, reading books and resting as all soldiers do when they can before a major battle. After agreeing not to identify their faces or location in the north their commanding officer allowed us to photograph and interview the troops.
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One told me passionately: “Tell the world what we are doing here. We are doing a good thing - we are fighting for our country as anybody would. I am happy and proud to be fighting for Israel. What happened down south is dreadful - the whole world knows the truth about that and we don’t know what will come next.
“Whatever comes at us, we will deal with it. None of us want to have to be here but there’s a job to be done and as soldiers we will do it.” Whole families in 28 communities along the northern border have fled abroad or to central Israel fearing an explosion of violence worse than anything seen here in decades.
One woman even told how her 85 year-old father told her: “Prepare yourself. Gaza was just the beginning. This will be worse than Yom Kippur." The further north you travel in Israel the more eerily empty the roads are, except for the odd car and convoys of stern-faced troops rushing to the front.
Israeli Defence Force troops at the Northern border (Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)Surveillance drones buzz the skies on the hunt for a Hezbollah incursion and fighter jets roar above us constantly, the deep roar of afterburn penetrating the quiet. Former intelligence officer of 14 years Lieutenant Colonel Sarit Zehavi, 47, a mother, who runs the Alma Research and Education Centre in Tefen, northern Israel told us: “I strongly believe what happened in Gaza, that atrocity, was the beginning of a huge Iranian master plan.
“This was the start of a multi-fronted attack against the state of Israel, and Hezbollah and Iran’s other proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and beyond will become involved. Hezbollah are a huge threat to northern Israel and we know they have an elite 5,000 strong group called the Radwan Unit who were trained by Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“Iran has created proxies in Syria and in Yemen and controls Hezbollah. They created the tight relationship between Hamas and Hezbollah. They encourage terrorism inside Israel and the West Bank. Add all that together and its the fulfillment of their vision of seven fronts against the State of Israel.”
Colonel Zehavi believes Iran agreed with its IRGC chiefs and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a series of Beirut meetings in September to launch the assault. But she says for some reason the staged assault was switched to the south with Gaza and perhaps executed early for an unknown reason - and now Hezbollah will likely join.
Shadi Khaloul (Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)She believes the original plan was for Hezbollah to attack first, spearheaded by the Radwan Unit and then followed by Hamas in Gaza and Iran’s proxies elsewhere. It was her who received the recent warning from her aged father who survived Yom Kippur whose day one death toll was nowhere near that of the Hamas war, which claimed over 1,300 lives.
Lieutenant Colonel Zehavi adds: “I have photographed the Hezbollah, constantly watching us from the other side of the border and they know who we are. It worries me, yes. Of course it does. I worry for my family. But there are soldiers everywhere in the region, protecting us.
“But even if a percentage of Hezbollah get through that wil be very bad.War is war- we don’t know what will happen. What I do know is that Biden will go home and eventually the aircraft carriers will leave. And all of us will have to continue to live with this nightmare, this monster of Hezbollah.”
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Just two miles from the Lebanon border, ex-IDF Paratrooper Shadi Khaloul, 47, now working for Alma think tank, said locals are taking up arms to prepare for a Hezbollah attack. Pointing out the Hezbollah town of Marroun al-Ras on the other side of Israeli border village of Jish, Christian Maronite Shadi, a father-of -five said: “Like all the other villages here we are forming volunteer squads to protect ourselves if Hezbollah come.
Hezbollah controlled town of Marroun in Lebanon close to border with Israel (Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)"We will arm ourselves and as a former Major I am organising this and all the other communities are forming squads. We all want to protect our country from this monster which needs to be ended finally. Once the squads are formed we will work with the police to stop these terrorists.
"But everyone is afraid that if Hezbollah launch a large-scale attack we will all be dead or kidnapped by them. So we will be armed with M16s.” Shadi has evacuated his entire family abroad and says more than 125,000 reservists can be called upon to join local squads - Jews, Christians and Druze.
As we surveyed the Hezbollah stronghold village of Marroun al-Ras on the other side he warned us: “We are about two miles from the border and it is dangerous if we go closer. Hezbollah can see us and they have snipers, anti tank weapons and they attack regularly.” Even as we spoke somewhere along the border there were missile exchanges between Hezbolla and Israeli Defence Forces.
Shadi told us: “When you look over there you see beautoful mountains, a valley and beyond, some homes on the Lebanese side. But I see Hezbollah intelligence gatherers, thousands of fighters, snipers, anti-tank specialists, guns, bombs, tunnels and a monster coming our way.
“The rest of the world needs to wake up to this monster of Hezbollah and know what a threat Iran and its proxies represent - because they hate you too. They really do.” A female IDF Sergeant called Rifka could not be photographed face-on when we spoke to her as aged 40 she has been called up for IDF duty.
She said at her modern home in Jish: “We are all ready for Hezbollah and I think they will come, sure I don but we will do what we can to stop them. I will be helping the home front evacuate people if the war happens with Hezbollah.”
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