“There is no defense”
Hezbollah anti-tank missiles are causing problems for Israel
January 10, 2024, 7:59 p.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
A new Hezbollah tactic appears to be causing headaches for the Israeli military. The terrorist organization is increasingly firing anti-tank missiles from Lebanon at facilities and vehicles in northern Israel. The missiles can hardly be intercepted.
According to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Shiite militia Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is using an unusually large number of anti-tank missiles against residential buildings in its fight against Israel. These weapons were actually developed to combat armored vehicles and although they only have a relatively short range, they can be directed very precisely by the shooter onto the target.
The Israeli army is having major problems intercepting these weapons, the newspaper continued. Hezbollah has been shelling Israel since the Islamist Hamas massacres in Israel that sparked the Gaza war. Like Hamas, it is supported by Iran. When contacted, the Israeli army said it did not want to comment on the report.
Rockets as “sniper weapons”
Hundreds of houses in the towns near the border in northern Israel, such as Metula, Manara and Avivim, which have been evacuated for weeks, have already been hit by projectiles from Lebanon or damaged by the pressure waves from Israeli artillery, the newspaper wrote, citing residents. People are afraid and cannot return to their hometowns.
Hezbollah is using the rockets as “sniper weapons,” so to speak, Dotan Rochman, the security officer for Israel’s Upper Galilee region, was quoted as saying. “We showed them how to accurately fire missiles into the window of a building from an attack helicopter, and now they’re firing anti-tank missiles into our windows from a distance of nine kilometers,” Rochman said. With the precision weapons, Hezbollah could maintain pressure without risking a major war with Israel.
“Against everything that moves”
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system can effectively combat high-flying rockets like those from the Gaza Strip as well as artillery fire. But anti-tank missiles have a flat trajectory and Israel currently has little opportunity to give the residents of towns on the border with Lebanon even five seconds of warning or to intercept the projectiles, the newspaper continued.
Hezbollah uses anti-tank missiles against numerous civilian targets, Jehoshua Kalisky from the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies told the newspaper. “They are fired daily on a massive scale against civilians, soldiers, vehicles, chicken farms and houses in the north. Against everything that moves or does not move, and there is no defense against it,” the expert said.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war on October 7th, there have been almost daily confrontations in the Israeli-Lebanese border region between Israel’s army and Hezbollah, which is allied with the Islamist Hamas, in which there have been deaths on both sides. Israel is demanding that the Hezbollah militia withdraw from the border for the safety of its citizens and has threatened to use military force if diplomatic efforts fail.