For the residents of Kiryat Shemona, in Israel’s north, survival has meant deserting their home. It once housed tens of thousands but now sits mostly abandoned
Across Israel’s north, 60,000 people have been evacuated. On the Lebanese side of the border, 100,000 have been displaced
1. Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah has launched more than 1,800 cross-border drone, rocket, and artillery strikes on Israeli territories. 2. Israel has struck over 7,000 targets inside Lebanon according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project
Hezbollah's arsenal
Israel estimates Hezbollah have an arsenal of more than 120,000 missiles.
Sarit Zehavi, a former army intelligence officer, who lives near Israel’s northern border, said it’s much more. “Double it … double [the] amount 240,000”
She said her life is at risk every day
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“When I look at the options, I’m very worried because one option is a full-scale war. We are not at a full-scale war. It’s a kind of a war of attrition now.
“It’s a terrorist army, working for Iran and it is over here. And we don’t have a solution that will prevent all these casualties”
In Tel Aviv, Zohar Palti, a former head of the intelligence directorate of the country’s foreign intelligence agency, Mossad, said
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war has already begun
“We take it personally when a state is coming, a great state like Iran, and saying that they want to eliminate the State of Israel. And it’s coming from the Supreme Leader” Palti said
In a 2020 speech Ayatollah Khamenei said
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the “the Zionist regime is a deadly, cancerous growth” that would be “uprooted and destroyed” but has said this “doesn’t mean eliminating Jews. We aren’t against Jews”
While we are in Israel there’s an attack from one of Iran’s proxies, the Houthis, who are based in Yemen At 3am, an Iranian-made Houthi drone hit the centre of Tel Aviv
One person was killed – one block from the US consulate and 500 metres from where we were staying
Former senior Israeli military official Amos Gilad said Iran has positioned itself as Israel’s worst enemy
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“Iran used to be our best friend and ally until the Islamic Revolution” he said. “Iran as a member of the United Nations keeps preaching to destroy Israel, to exterminate Israel”
As both sides tussle for dominance, Jasmine El-Gamal, a former Middle East adviser to the Pentagon during the Obama administration, said
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any war between Israel and Iran or Israel and Hezbollah would be disastrous
El-Gamal's role saw her briefing the chairman of the joint chiefs of the US military If she were in that role today and the question of war between Israel and Iran was asked, her answer would be grim
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“I would say ‘Sir, I hope we never have to find out’”
And if the chairman insisted on an answer?
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“I would say that Iran has the ability through its proxies to light the entire region on fire” “Regardless of who is left standing on the battlefield, that is a loss for everyone, including Iran and including Israel" “Israel cannot exist in a region that is completely aflame”
full Four Corners investigation The Big War available on ABC iview
