Hezbollah raises stakes in the north by attacking previously untouched communities

Hezbollah has stepped up rocket attacks in recent days, expanding their range and targets in retaliation for the Israeli military’s actions.

Residents of eight kibbutzim near the border who had not been evacuated by the Northern Command were ordered for the first time Tuesday night to remain near protected areas due to ongoing IDF operations in Lebanon.

The Upper Galilee Regional Council issued this directive to communities that had already been evacuated, but it also included eight communities in the Hula Valley: Kfar Szold, Shamir, Amir, Sde Nehemia, Kfar Blum, Neot Mordechai, Lehavot Habashan and Gonen. These areas were ostensibly part of “normal routine,” but residents have recently fallen into Hezbollah’s “legitimate target population.”

The council’s safety department advised residents to “avoid gatherings and move planned outdoor activities indoors.” Children who did want to swim in the pool during the summer holidays had to do so under adult supervision.

Also on Tuesday, Hezbollah fired rockets and drones at other targets in the western Galilee that had not yet been evacuated, including Moshav Tzuriel, which suffered direct hits.

The Alma Research and Education Center, which studies security challenges in northern Israel, reported that Hezbollah has expanded its rocket attacks in the past week to a range of more than 5 kilometers, primarily targeting non-evacuated communities.

“Hezbollah is taking a calculated risk that expanding its reach will not lead to a harsher Israeli response, assuming that Israel will not start a war as a result,” said Tal Be’eri, head of Alma’s research department.

He warned that the risk lies in a missile causing “particularly painful damage” in Israel, such as hitting a kindergarten in a non-evacuated community or a densely populated public area. In such a case, Israel could launch a more intensive campaign of retaliation.

According to Alma researchers, between July 16 (the day before Nasrallah’s public threat) and July 22, Hezbollah attacked areas more than 3 miles from the border 16 times. Eleven of these attacks targeted non-evacuated civilian communities, and five additional attacks targeted military bases.

Following an attack in which Hezbollah claimed to have killed five Syrian refugees in Lebanon, including three children and two Lebanese civilians who were with their brother, a Hezbollah fighter, the terrorist organization responded with massive rocket fire on Kiryat Shmona and communities more than 5 kilometers from the border that were not evacuated: Kabri, Kfar Hoshen, Meron, Bar Yohai, Sa’ar and Gesher HaZiv.

Dana Polak, a researcher at Alma, said: “Nasrallah threatened Israel with a new formula from his perspective: if the damage to civilians in Lebanon continues, Hezbollah will attack new communities that it has not attacked so far.”

According to the institute’s monitoring, in the days that followed, Hezbollah claimed that Lebanese civilians were injured and responded by firing into civilian communities. On July 19, in response to the injury of several civilians, Hezbollah said they launched dozens of rockets from Lebanon into the communities of Abirim, Neve Ziv and Manot during an attack on Radwan forces’ buildings in southern Lebanon.

On July 22, a girl was wounded in an IDF attack in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah responded by firing dozens of rockets into Tzuriel, an unevacuated area about 4 miles from the Lebanese border. The rocket attack caused minor injuries to two civilians and significant property damage.

Polak noted that Hezbollah’s military infrastructure is fully integrated with civilian infrastructure throughout southern Lebanon, using civilians as human shields. “The purpose of this comparison is primarily focused on Hezbollah’s internal support base in Lebanon, to show that it is not deterred. This also reinforces Hezbollah’s image as ‘Lebanon’s Guardian’ by responding to incidents that harm Lebanese civilians,” she said.