Jonathan Spyer
As its Gaza campaign cools, Israel’s attention is returning northwards. Approximately 60,000 Israelis from northern communities are still refugees. A reckoning between Israel and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah appears to be only a matter of time. Two significant strikes this week suggest that Israel is preparing for a potentially imminent major confrontation, and broadening the scope of its operations on the northern front.
In the first attack, according to reports in Syrian state media, Israeli aircraft hit targets in the Hama area in western Syria on the night of 7-8 September. 18 people were reported killed, and over 43 wounded. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), an opposition-linked website with a network of informants on the ground in Syria, reported that ‘13 violent explosions were heard in the scientific research area in Masyaf, west of Hama. Two Israeli missiles also fell on two sites in the Al-Zawi area in the Masyaf countryside, causing fires in them. The Israeli missiles targeted a site on the Masyaf-Wadi Al-Oyoun road, and another site in the Hayr Abbas area.’ The ‘scientific research center’ referred to here is the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC) – sometimes also referred to as ‘CERS’ – located west of Hama city.
Then, on Wednesday, Israeli aircraft struck 30 targets in southern Lebanon, including Hezbollah rocket launchers and infrastructure used to launch daily attacks on targets in northern Israel. A drone strike in the Qaraoun area deep in the Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon on the same day killed Muhammad Qassem al-Shaer, a veteran commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force. The Israeli strikes came in response to a wave of Hezbollah rocket-laden drone and rocket attacks on targets in Israel’s north on Monday.
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