Israel's two-front conflict saw its heaviest day of fighting on Wednesday, claiming 9 Israeli soldiers, dozens of Hezbollah fighters and at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza. The death toll on Wednesday was IsraelÂ’s highest since fighting began on July 12 after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers during a raid into Israel. The most intense ground combat came around the hilltop town of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold just a few miles from the Israeli border.
Two days ago, Israeli military officials on the border confidently announced that first the village of Maroun al-Ras and then the larger town of Bint Jbail had been subdued. But renewed fighting erupted in the region around daybreak on Wednesday and by the afternoon military officers were being more circumspect about their progress. In Maroun al-Ras, one Israeli soldier was killed and three more were wounded on Wednesday, the Israeli military said. Hezbollah fighters fired an antitank rocket that hit the soldiers in a building, it said.
When asked what the Israeli military had achieved after two weeks of fighting, General Gantz replied: “I would suggest asking what Hezbollah has achieved. They came as defenders of Lebanon but basically have destroyed the country.”
General Gantz, a lean, graying man who is famous for having been the last Israeli to leave southern Lebanon in the pullout six years ago after an 18-year Israeli presence there, insisted that the fight, though long, would ultimately go Israel’s way. Yet he showed glimmers of frustration with the political pressures that are shaping the battle plan. When asked if he thought Israel’s response to the initial Hezbollah raid was disproportionate, as many critics have charged, he minced no words. “I don’t think it was disproportionate,” he said. “It should have been much stronger and that’s what we’re going to do.”
“We have a long way to go and a lot to achieve,” he said, although he would not talk about how many villages needed to be cleared of Hezbollah fighters or what geographic area Israel need to occupy in order to create a credible buffer zone. Israeli Army officers are saying it is probably unrealistic to expect that the military can wipe out Hezbollah’s well-hidden and widespread arsenal, which was believed to have contained more than 10,000 missiles when the fighting began. General Gantz conceded that it would be difficult to stop the rockets that have menaced northern Israel with purely military means, noting that the launchers are mobile and easily hidden and can be fired remotely or with timers.
Another officer, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press, noted that even if Israel managed to destroy 50 or 60 percent of those rockets, there would still be enough left to keep up the current pace of roughly 100 rockets a day for weeks. “All Hezbollah has to do to win is not lose,” another officer said. |