Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Hizballah plans Hamas-style mob violence against IDF troops from the Lebanese border

DEBKAfile Exclusive: On Monday, Dec. 1, Hizballah activists began organizing groups of “demonstrators” in the Shiite villages of South Lebanon for mob assaults from behind the Lebanese border on the IDF teams excavating tunnels. They plan to take a leaf from the violent disturbances Hamas and Islamic Jihad staged against Israeli troops from the Gaza border for months. Hizballah strategists estimate that thousands of Shiite men, women and children can be mobilized to harass the Israeli soldiers unearthing its tunnels. By turning up at different points, they would seriously hamper the Israeli operation.

Since the IDF keeps to the Israeli side of the Lebanese border, these groups would at first be ordered to stay at least 20 meters from the soldiers’ excavation sites. Our exclusive sources add that Hizballah obtained a Lebanese army guarantee to secure the Shiite riots. Preparations appear to be in progress for the first outbreak to occur around the village of Meiss ej-Jabal in the Marj Ayoun district opposite Israeli Zar’it. This patch was chosen as the starting point for the crowd assault on Israeli troops because there is no fence or wall blocking access between Lebanon and Israel. This first pilot “demonstration” will be staged to test results and gauge Israel’s response. If the stratagem works for Hizballah, it will be expanded to other parts of the border.

A close watch is being kept on the Gaza Strip in case the Palestinian terrorists, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are closely aligned with Hizballah, decide to go back to their former full-scale rampages against Israeli troops as a “second front.” In the last few weeks, they were persuaded to slacken the violence by the intake of Qatari dollars.