By Wesam Bahrani

Since Hezbollah opened the military front against the Israeli regime on October 8, a day after the Palestinian resistance launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm; Israeli leaders have repeatedly issued bellicose statements against the Lebanese resistance movement.

Daily operations by the Lebanese resistance have been met with warnings by war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and the likes of Yoav Gallant, Bezalzel Smotrich, Etamer Ben-Gvir and others.

They have even suggested that Lebanon will return to the “stone age”, a statement smacking of complete desperation and frustration.

“Hezbollah must pay the price and anyone that supports Hezbollah must pay the price,” some said. 

“We will burn everything that exists in Lebanon” others warned. 

Netanyahu and his crew enjoyed the support of the Israeli settler population to enact those threats. 

Too many mediators flew in and out of Beirut, relaying messages, via Lebanese officials, for Hezbollah to halt its legitimate operations against the Israeli occupation. 

US special envoy Amos Hochstein was the last to make the trip. Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French president’s special envoy to Lebanon, had a go too.

Hakan Fidan, the Turkish foreign minister, was among the others who said Tel Aviv was fuming and, this time, is seriously considering a full-scale war against Lebanon. 

“End the Hezbollah fire, calm it. Do whatever you can.” they all pleaded with senior Lebanese government officials, evidently rattled by what they witnessed. 

That was nearly nine months ago. Now, Israeli settlers are not as enthused about a full-scale war as they used to be. The appetite has disappeared, mostly due to what they have witnessed from Hezbollah, and they know their army is exhausted from fighting in Gaza. 

Since day one, Hezbollah’s message has been clear, transparent and consistent.  “Once the genocide in Gaza stops, our military operations will stop,” top Hezbollah officials have said.

The Zionist threat of returning Lebanon “to the stone age” is not something new. 

What’s new is that Hezbollah is threatening to return the Zionist occupation “back to the stone age” and this threat is not a mere rhetoric. They mean business.  

Consider what happened on the Lebanese front following the assassination of Hezbollah commander Abu Talib, the world now understands that the Lebanese resistance is a force to reckon with. 

Several hundred projectiles fired in two days by Hezbollah was something the Zionist regime had not witnessed since 1948, according to Hebrew Channel 13. 

In July last year, an assessment by the Israeli security agency Shabak was presented to Netanyahu and his crew on the scenario that would unfold inside occupied Palestine on the first day of a full-scale war. 

“Hezbollah would fire 6,000 projectiles.” 

These would include missiles, some of which would be precision-guided as well as drones. The extent of the firepower would overwhelm the Iron Dome system to an extent not seen in living memory. 

This is just the first day. 

If several hundred missiles caused so much damage and infuriated the Zionists after veteran commander Abu Talib’s martyrdom, what would 6,000 missiles in one day cause? 

According to the Shabak, it would destroy electricity plants, railway stations, Iron Dome batteries, and other infrastructure crucial to the existence of the Zionist occupation. 

No electricity means no internet, lack of communication and no more business as usual. 

The Israelis themselves speak about Hezbollah’s precision missiles with warheads of 500 kilograms and others with 1,500 kilograms. 

These are missiles that can uproot a neighborhood and turn it upside down or land on a train station and lease nothing standing within a 200 square kilometer radius. 

The Zionists need to make 1,000 calculations before waging a full-scale war on Lebanon. 

Three camps do not seek an all-out war. All three have different reasons for this. 

The Zionists know Hezbollah’s military capabilities and manpower. Before October 7, Tel Aviv waited for at least 15 years before considering an all-out war. 

This was so that the unknown number of Hezbollah soldiers who had fought against Daesh terrorists in Syria and gained invaluable warfare tactics would have retired by then. 

Making matters worse, over the past eight months, Hezbollah soldiers have taken turns at the Lebanese border, waging some of the most sophisticated operations. 

A thousand head to the front for a few weeks, gain experience in new weapons and the enemy’s tactics, retreat, and another thousand replace them. 

Hezbollah has only showcased a fraction of the weapons at its disposal. The air superiority of the Zionists no longer exists. The equation changed over the past eight months. 

How many times has Hezbollah shot down the Hermes 900 drone? And nobody is any wiser what anti-aircraft defense system was used.  

There is not much left for these soldiers to learn how the Zionist military operates up to 40 kilometers on the other side of the Lebanese border. 

Hezbollah’s martyrs are not a result of negligence on part of the Lebanese resistance but because it operates on the Lebanese border, fully aware that they are exposed, whereas Israeli troops have gone into hiding. 

Among the many other headaches for Tel Aviv is that its ground forces cannot cross the Lebanese border. Hezbollah’s Secretary-General says more than 1,000,000 soldiers have risen to the resistance ranks. But sources say this number exceeds a quarter of a million. 

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has also pointed out there is not a single point within occupied Palestine that Hezbollah’s weapons cannot reach. 

The second party that seeks to calm the Lebanon front is the United States of America. Hochstein was dispatched from Washington to try and calm the battlefield. 

Despite his failure, the US is aware that an all-out war would place every American military base, scattered across the Persian Gulf, at risk of bombardment. 

The third party that wants to avoid this war is the Axis of Resistance and Hezbollah in particular because such an escalation would switch focus away from Gaza. 

This would allow the US-backed genocide in Gaza to expand the scale of massacres of Palestinian women and children who are being starved and burned alive. 

Hezbollah isn’t afraid of facing the Zionist enemy. The Lebanese resistance can take this entity back to the “Stone Age” and will have the backing of the resistance in Iraq, Yemen, as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran, should such a war erupt. 

Wesam Bahrani is an Iraqi journalist and commentator.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.