By Carlos Fazio on January 8, 2024
Deaths continue to mount in Gaza, Photo: Mohammed Saqer via @PalestineRCS/X
After three months of an asymmetric, hybrid war that combined scorched earth policy with collective punishment against the population of the Gaza Strip – without achieving the two main stated objectives: exterminating Hamas and rescuing the Israeli soldiers and civilians held by the Palestinian resistance groups since last October 7 -, the military forces and intelligence apparatuses of the Zionist State, with the political, economic and military support of the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA, seem to have made the decision to set the Middle East and the adjacent seas on fire.
Unable to digest the enormous strategic losses they have suffered due to Operation Al-Aqsa Storm – including deterrence capabilities, despite the use of US-made half-ton and one-ton bombs and the deployment of aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean, Red and Indian Seas – the Washington-Tel Aviv axis decided to use the terrorist tool as a form of provocation to involve the Lebanese Republic and Iran in the confrontation.
On January 2, in an unprecedented action, Israel attacked a target in Beirut, Lebanon, and shrapnel from its drones killed Saleh al Arouri, deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau and founder of its military wing, the al Qassam Brigades. A day later, a terrorist attack was carried out in the city of Kerman, Iran, killing 84 people and injuring 284, coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani by the United States. The action was claimed by the Islamic State mercenary group, at the service of US-Zionist policy.
The assassination of the Hamas leader in Beirut marked a turning point in the war, as it was aimed at exacerbating the confrontation with the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah. On January 3, the secretary general of that militia, Hassan Nasrallah, warned of the high cost to Israel of launching the war against Lebanon. He said that this “grave crime” would not go unanswered or unsanctioned, “between you and us is the field, the days and the nights.” He added: “The fight will have no limits, no rules and no controls. A war against us and the national interests obliges us to go to the end”.
On January 6, the pan-Arab Al Mayadeen news agency reported that Hezbollah’s “initial response” to the assassination of Palestinian leader Al-Arouri was to launch 62 missiles at the Israeli military base of Meron, atop Mount Jarmaq. The base rises some 1,200 meters above sea level and is eight kilometers from the last border point with Lebanon. Considered the nerve center of the Zionist entity and the main military and intelligence command point on the northern front, it covers up to 150,000 square meters.
Due to its extensive control over the Lebanese geography, the Meron base has as its main objective air surveillance, being the only center for the administration and control of air traffic in the north of occupied Palestine. According to a Hezbollah statement, the base is responsible for organizing, coordinating and managing all air operations in the direction of Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Cyprus, as well as the northern part of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. In addition, it is a main center for electronic jamming operations in the aforementioned directions, and is staffed by a considerable number of elite Israeli officers and soldiers.
Due to the Israeli military’s reliance on unmanned devices for surveillance and intelligence gathering, the base became the main command center for drone operations in Lebanon and Syria. It also facilitates the conduct of military operations, as most of the communication devices, command rooms, and radars are located on Mount Meron. It is therefore a key element in the interaction with agents on the ground, as well as in the monitoring and surveillance of wireless communications, activities previously carried out by the occupation army’s border posts attacked and destroyed by the Lebanese resistance in recent weeks.
Considered a key link in the reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Fatah, as well as in the establishment of the network of relations with Iran and the so-called Axis of Resistance, the assassination of Al Arouri in Beirut may have been a tactical victory for Israel, but not a strategic one. Hezbollah’s attack now on the Meron airbase – nicknamed “The Eyes of the State in the North” – marks a qualitative leap on the part of the Lebanese resistance, which since October 7 had maintained a careful selection of Israeli targets.
A Hezbollah video released Saturday night by Al Mayadeen shows in detail when two of the three visible radomes of the Meron air control base are hit with precision. According to Hezbollah, the attack caused “direct and confirmed casualties.” The scenes confirm that the state-of-the-art Cornet E-M guided missile attack puts Israel in a real dilemma. Hezbollah managed to push the front line with Israel eight kilometers inside the borders of occupied Palestine, and for the first time the Zionist generals face the test of taking direct fire from the resistance. The Netanyahu regime must choose between remaining silent in the face of this humiliating and dangerous blow to the security of its military commanders and the course of its operations against Lebanon, or moving towards a response whose implications and limits are difficult to predict. Weeks ago, the Zionist Defense Minister, former Major General Yoav Galant, warned Hezbollah that if it unleashed an escalation, Israel would return Lebanon “to the Stone Age”.
Iran’s response, on the other hand, is on hold. On January 5, the red flag of retaliation was raised on the dome of the Jamkaran mosque near Qom. A day later, General Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Iran faces “an all-out battle against the enemy” (Zionist-US) and called for defending the nation’s “vital interests”. He ventured that Israel could soon “suffer the closure of the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar and other waterways”.
Source: La Jornada, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English