'There is no defense' Hezbollah's anti-tank missiles are causing problems for Israel
January 10, 2024, 7:59 pm Listen to the article
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A new Hezbollah tactic appears to be causing headaches for the Israeli military. The terrorist organization increasingly fires anti-tank missiles from Lebanon at facilities and vehicles in northern Israel. Missiles can hardly be intercepted.
According to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Shiite Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon is using an unusually large number of anti-tank missiles against residential buildings in its fight against Israel. In fact, these weapons were developed to combat armored vehicles and, although they have a relatively short range, they can be very accurately aimed at the target by the shooter.
The Israeli army is having major problems intercepting these weapons, the newspaper continued. Hezbollah has been bombing Israel since the Hamas Islamist massacres in Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. 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 homes in cities close to 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 pressure waves from Israeli artillery, the newspaper wrote. citing residents. People are scared and cannot return to their hometowns.
Hezbollah is using the rockets as “sniper weapons,” so to speak, said Dotan Rochman, a security official in Israel's Upper Galilee region. “We showed them how to accurately fire missiles at a building window from an attack helicopter, and now they are firing anti-tank missiles at our windows from six miles away,” Rochman said. With precision weapons, Hezbollah could keep up the pressure without risking a major war with Israel.
“Against everything that moves”
Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system can effectively combat high-altitude rockets, such as 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 residents of towns on the Lebanese border even five seconds of warning or to intercept the projectiles, the newspaper continued.
Hezbollah uses anti-tank missiles against several civilian targets, Jehoshua Kalisky of the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies told the newspaper. “They are fired daily on a large scale against civilians, soldiers, vehicles, farms and houses in the north. Against everything that moves or doesn't move, and there is no defense against that”, said the expert.
Since the start of the Gaza war on October 7, there have been almost daily clashes in the Israeli-Lebanese border region between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, which is allied with the Islamist Hamas, in which there have been deaths on both sides. Israel demands 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.