As Lebanon braces, four scenarios for Hezbollah's confrontation with Israel
As US officials press their leverage to prevent an Israeli war inside Lebanon, fears of a miscalculation have grown in the last few weeks as both Hezbollah and the Israeli military intensify their clashes.
Juin 29, 2024
By Jared Szuba
@JM_Szuba
Source:https://www.al-
This is an excerpt from Security Briefing, Al-
WASHINGTON — With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaling an imminent
down-
Topping their concerns is averting an all-
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant received a red-
“Another war between Israel and Hezbollah could easily become a regional war, with terrible consequences for the Middle East,” US defense chief Lloyd Austin said in unusually pointed remarks at the top of his meeting with Gallant on Tuesday. “Diplomacy is by far the best way to prevent more escalation."
Hezbollah has now launched more rockets and drones into Israel during the ongoing
Gaza war than Hamas has. The tit-
US officials have grown increasingly worried that Israeli leaders' strategic concerns and rhetorical brinkmanship on both sides could make confrontation inevitable.
President Joe Biden’s top energy envoy, Amos Hochstein, returned last week from his
fourth trip to Beirut in the last nine months, part of an effort in parallel with
French diplomats seeking to negotiate an off-
It’s not clear whether Hochstein’s latest visit achieved any concrete gains. In a
fiery speech last Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah once again ruled out
halting the cross-
“We're urgently seeking a diplomatic agreement that restores lasting calm to Israel's northern border and enables civilians to return safely to their homes on both sides,” Austin said with Gallant at the Pentagon this week.
The Israeli defense chief made no promises, at least publicly. “We are working closely together to achieve an agreement but we must also discuss readiness on every possible scenario,” he responded to Austin in remarks before the cameras on Tuesday.
Israeli leaders have been threatening for months to launch a military operation into Lebanon to push Hezbollah’s forces back from the border. However the tone of those threats appears to have softened amid the flurry of engagements in Washington.
“If there will not be an arrangement through diplomatic means, everyone understands that there must be an arrangement through other means. For now, we prefer to focus on the diplomatic campaign,” Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said on Tuesday morning, just days after meeting with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other top White House officials.
Sources close to the discussions say the deference – and the several weeks which the IDF is expected to need in order to prepare for an offensive in the north – may offer a window of opportunity for Western diplomats, including Hochstein, to set in motion proposals that would enable both Hezbollah and the Israeli military to halt their strikes and pull back from the border.
Having previously banked hopes on a Gaza ceasefire to reduce tensions on the Lebanon
border, Biden administration officials now suggest they are trying to de-
"The logic of Nasrallah … is that it is all tied to Gaza, and until there is a cease-
As the US Navy deploys with Marines to the eastern Mediterranean to prepare for potential evacuations, here are four hypothetical scenarios that could play out in the looming confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah:
Scenario 1: Limited campaign
The Israeli military is expected to withdraw some ground forces from Gaza while shifting
to precision strikes to kill senior Hamas leaders and intel-
Israeli leaders, intent on killing Yahya Sinwar and other architects of the Oct.
7 terror attacks, may refuse to compromise on Hamas' demands for a cease-
Nasrallah, having vowed to only halt Hezbollah’s cross-
Israeli officials have repeatedly made clear that the situation along the border is unacceptable, and Israeli citizens are unlikely to return to their towns in the north as long as the attacks continue, whatever their pace or intensity.
The Israeli air force may launch a blitz of airstrikes across southern Lebanon, largely avoiding population centers in a campaign aimed at destroying Hezbollah’s drone and rocket units within close range of the border. The militant group is almost certain to respond in kind, though Hezbollah may avoid striking major Israeli urban centers if Israel refrains from doing the same in Lebanon.
But it's not likely that Israeli airstrikes will drive Hezbollah's elite Radwan forces back from the border without a ground incursion. In a rare public warning earlier this week, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff CQ Brown said that such an assault would increase the risk of an Iranian military intervention on the side of Hezbollah.
Scenario 2: Miscalculation
As major Israeli ground operations in Gaza wind down, IDF special forces will continue the search for hostages and hunt for top Hamas commanders.
In Israel’s north, the tit-
As mutual strikes intensify, casualties are likely to mount on both sides. Israeli
leaders may decide to put an end to the conflict before Hezbollah targets major Israeli
cities such as Haifa with precision-
Kata'ib al-
While the United States could rally allies to help defend Israel against those aerial
attacks, the collective air defense effort isn't likely to easily repeat its successes
in the April 13 Iranian attack against Israel, Gen. Brown, the Pentagon's top-
As Al-
Some 3,400 US troops in Iraq and Syria, as well as thousands more American service members at air and naval bases in Arab countries in the Gulf, lie within range of Iran’s projectiles.
Scenario 3: Pre-
US officials say neither Israel's nor Hezbollah's leaders want war, but Netanyahu's government is under intense domestic pressure to enable the safe return of Israeli citizens to their communities in the north.
Israeli leaders could decide to risk a full-
Airstrikes may reach as far as Beirut, targeting Hezbollah command and control in a bid to end the war quickly and prevent the militant group from striking at sensitive Israeli electrical and water infrastructure, airports, naval facilities and air defenses.
“We can bring Lebanon completely into the dark, and take apart Hezbollah’s power in days,” Israeli opposition leader and former defense minister Benny Gantz warned at a conference in Herzliya earlier this week. Gantz acknowledged the cost of the war to Israel “will be heavy.”
“We need to be ready for major incidents of harm,” he was quoted as saying. “We should try to avoid it. But if we need to do it, we cannot be deterred.”
Israel could also target top Hezbollah leaders including Nasrallah and his deputy, Naim Qassem.
IDF armored columns and infantry may push into southern Lebanon in an attempt to destroy Hezbollah’s forces near the border and force them to withdraw. Such a campaign is likely to inflict significant casualties on both sides and decimate southern Lebanon, prolonging the country's already dire economic turmoil. And experts say there is no guarantee of success.
Iran – and thus the United States – would be more likely to intervene militarily.
Scenario 4: Cease-
Hopes that Israel and Hamas could come to a quick agreement for a cease-
Analysts say Netanyahu needs a victory in Gaza to prevent the collapse of his governing
coalition. If Israeli forces were to kill Sinwar or other top Hamas leaders in Gaza
and perhaps rescue additional hostages with the help of US-
“The closer they get to Hamas' leadership, the more likely cease-
However unlikely in the near-
That could give traction to parallel US and French-
Yet analysts say most Hezbollah fighters near the Blue Line are from villages in the south, and while they may drop their militia fatigues and abandon their fortified positions, they are unlikely to leave their homes.
“There are Hezbollah weapons caches all throughout the south. They will continue to be there,” said Firas Maksad of the Middle East Institute.
In such a scenario, the Lebanese militant faction is likely to retain its formidable
arsenal, ready for use in the next Israel-