How should Israel respond to Hezbollah’s rocket attacks?

By Yaakov Lappin, JNS

Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s deadly rocket attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights must not be “more of the same,” Israeli observers told JNS on Sunday.

On Saturday night, a Hezbollah rocket hit a soccer field in the northern Israeli city, killing 12 children and teenagers. The Israel Defense Forces later confirmed that the rocket was Iranian-made and was fired from an area north of the village of Shebaa in southern Lebanon.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Saturday night from the scene of the rocket attack: “We know exactly where the rocket was fired from. The remains found on the soccer field confirm that it was a Hezbollah rocket, specifically a Falaq rocket with a 53-kilogram warhead.”

IDF Brigadier General (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, stressed the need for a strategic and decisive response.

“The primary goal must be clear: to deliver a heavy blow to Hezbollah to show that we will not overlook such a heinous act,” he said.

That Hezbollah had used a rocket with such a powerful warhead in a civilian area “with full awareness” was a new development, he said, and something Israel “cannot accept.”

The attack deviates from Hezbollah’s previous calculated pattern of drawing Israeli fire into Lebanon to make it harder for Israel to achieve its war goals in Gaza against Hamas, he added.

“The closer we get to achieving this goal, the more Hezbollah increases its level of activity, and the more we hurt Hezbollah, the more it naturally increases the intensity of its activities,” he said.

Before Saturday’s rocket attack, the Israeli Air Force killed a member of the Hezbollah Radwan Force who was seen entering a building in Kafr Kela in southern Lebanon.

Israel must “stick to its goals in Gaza while exacting a very high price from Hezbollah,” Kuperwasser said. In addition, Israel will have to restructure the security situation in the north to allow tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to return to their homes, he added.

Over the night from Sunday to Sunday, the IAF carried out strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in multiple locations in Lebanon. However, these strikes are not considered a response to Saturday’s atrocities.

In light of Hezbollah’s escalation, “our actions must make it clear that we are not deterred by the possibility of further escalation. This could mean attacking Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, its strategic capabilities, and the national (Lebanese) infrastructure that serves Hezbollah’s military capabilities,” the former intelligence official said. He stressed, however, that “Israel will not attack civilians, contrary to Hezbollah’s methods.”

Professor Uzi Rabi, senior researcher and head of the Regional Cooperation Program at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, advocated a change in Israel’s approach to the fight against Hezbollah.

“Israel must adopt an out-of-the-box strategy similar to the one used in Yemen,” Rabi said, referring to the IAF strike on the Houthi fuel port in Al-Hodeida on July 20, which was a response to a deadly suicide drone attack by the Houthis on Tel Aviv.

Rabi suggested targeting Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure to disrupt daily life, thus pressuring the population to turn against Hezbollah. “Hezbollah presents itself as the protector of Lebanon, but significant disruption could lead to internal discord and international condemnation of Hezbollah’s actions,” he added.

“What should guide Israel’s actions is to do what it has not done yet, for the simple reason that what it has done so far has not been effective. I am not downplaying the issue of targeted killings or what the IDF has done to Hezbollah, but we have to admit that ultimately it has not worked,” he said.

“Israel needs to switch to another mode, I call it the Al-Hodeidah mode. To do what was done in Yemen: to target the civilian infrastructure in the host country,” he added. This, he argued, would result in the population facing disruptions in every way possible to their daily routine, electricity, water and other essential services, and could in turn turn the population against Hezbollah.

“Let us not forget that Hezbollah defines itself as the protector of Lebanon,” he said.

“That will happen when we know exactly who the patron of Hezbollah is and how it functions,” Rabi said. By targeting civilian infrastructure, he said, it would become clear to both the Lebanese people and the world that an atrocity has been committed against children in northern Israel, and that civilians in Lebanon will experience severe disruption as a result.

“Their outrage will have to reach the whole world, and then the world can find the guilty party and turn its gaze on Hezbollah,” he added.

Beirut is of utmost importance, Rabi said, because it is the heart of both Lebanon and Hezbollah.

Since the war began on October 7, Hezbollah has killed 24 civilians in Israel (including 12 on Saturday night in Majdal Shams), and killed 22 IDF soldiers and officers (five in operational accidents). Hezbollah has fired more than 340 unmanned aerial vehicles and more than 6,400 projectiles into Israel.