A Lebanese drone has just appeared on the other side of the hill. The radio spits out the information in military code, but a suspicious hum has already alerted the Israeli soldiers. Two of them crouch on the ground in full camouflage, M-16 pointing at the sky.
Israeli tank guns and interception systems are used, about which the army does not want to provide any information. The fire lasted an hour, during which the entire battalion was ordered to maintain strict cover.
“That’s how it is here, we go from zero to one hundred in a few seconds,” describes Kamal Saad, 33, commander of the Israeli army’s 299th battalion.
This location, where the AFP was authorized, serves as a base for the battalion, which is known throughout the country for being made up of 70% Druze infantry fighters, an Arabic-speaking minority in Israel known for its patriotism and sense of solidarity.
“We grew up here, it’s our home, we know every stone,” he adds.
“Our mission is to protect the security forces operating here and the remaining civilians,” the commander, whose brother Alim Saad was killed by a Hezbollah commando in the area on October 9, told AFP.
On Saturday, some of Commander Saad’s men followed the speech of the leader of the Shiite movement, Hassan Nasrallah, live and in their native Arabic.
The unit was placed on high alert. “The threat can come from anywhere, from the sea, from the sky and from land units,” explains the Israeli commander.
“Last Line”
Unlike the barrage of rockets in 2006 during the Lebanon War, the confrontation here consists of sporadic but daily clashes.
And for the first time in its history, all civilians from the border towns were evacuated by the army.
Elsewhere on the border, three soldiers were injured in an attack on the Margaliot position near Kiryat Shmona on Friday.
On Saturday, the crucial position for the battle was attacked again at the same time, 10:00 a.m., AFP noted, led by the cloud of white smoke that rose next to the Israeli antenna.
At its feet lies the kibbutz of Kfar Giladi and its guardians of “the last line before Hezbollah.” Tom Cohen, 28, returned from Australia to put back on his uniform and join the self-defense group of this collectivist farming village where he grew up.
“People thought that Hezbollah would try to invade here, as they did in the south (during the Hamas attack on October 7, editor’s note), and maybe they will try,” he says.
“But the main threat is rockets and attack drones, like I’m sure there were here this morning.” He hopes that “the second” Hezbollah “is no longer there,” that the border opens and he can finally discover the country can that he grew up with.
“Declaration of war”
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterates that he will only enter a war if Hezbollah forces it on him. On Friday, he told a briefing for troops near Gaza that the mission of the troops stationed en masse in the north was limited to one word: “deterrence.”
All Israeli fighters hit feared a massive clash.
“Since the second day, Hezbollah has been trying to enter this war and attack us. For me, these rockets they are sending at civilians are already a declaration of war,” said volunteer Tom Cohen, showing the stele commemorating the deaths in 2006 of 12 soldiers killed by a rocket at the kibbutz gate.
The war between Israel and Hamas, sparked by an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, has raised fears of a regional conflagration.
According to Israeli authorities, 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attack.
In retaliation, Israel shelled the Gaza Strip under the leadership of the Islamist movement. According to the Hamas Health Ministry, more than 11,000 people were killed, including at least 4,500 children.
According to AFP, more than 90 people died in the border clashes between the Israeli army and Hezbollah on the Lebanese side, most of them fighters from the Shiite formation, and at least eight on the Israeli side, including six soldiers and two civilians.