WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s army has increased efforts to reinforce communities closest to the Lebanon, which are most likely to be hit by retaliatory rockets fire in a future conflict with the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, The Times of Israel newspaper reported.
The paper said the so-called Operation Northern Shield officially began last month, when the war ministry’s Engineering and Construction Department and the army’s Home Front Command began installing new bomb shelters for homes in the town of Kfar Yuval, northeast of Kiryat Shmona.
The occupying regime’s war ministry said it is in the process of expanding the so-called Northern Shield program to include three other towns along the border with Lebanon.
“In the coming days, the Engineering and Construction Department will begin installing dozens of shelters in private homes in the three additional towns” the ministry said in a statement, adding that it intends to consolidate the plan in 21 occupied towns closest to Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the regime’s war minister Benny Gantz, in a statement, warned Zionists in the northern parts of the occupied territories to be ready for attacks by Hezbollah.
Last week, an Israeli research center said Hezbollah is in possession of some 2,000 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) compared to 2006 when the group had less than 50, warning that a “swarm” of such UAVs can severely damage the occupying regime’s defenses.
In a report, the ALMA Research Center said based on its information and professional assessments thereof, it has concluded that Hezbollah now possesses approximately 2,000 UAVs.
“Over the past 15 years, there has been a huge increase in the number of Hezbollah’s UAVs,” it said.
“While in 2006 Hezbollah had only a few dozen UAVs (in our estimation less than 50), we have information that in 2013 they had a few hundred (about 200 UAVs) and in 2016 they had hundreds of UAVs (we estimate up to about 800). We estimate that they now have at least 2,000 UAVs,” the report added.
It then warned that an extensive attack by “swarm” of Hezbollah’s UAVs on the Zionist regime’s air systems in the north could neutralize the regime’s defenses or severely damage them.
Lebanon fought off two wars waged by the Zionist regime in 2000 and 2006. On both occasions, battleground contribution by Hezbollah proved an indispensable asset, forcing the regime’s military into a retreat.