Israel's military to increase protection of strategic sites from Hezbollah missiles

Israeli Air Force to build hardened aircraft hangers at a cost of $10 million.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM
HEZBOLLAH MEMBERS wave Hezbollah and Lebanese flags during a 2015 rally in southern Lebanon marking the anniversary of the end of the terrorist organization’s 2006 war with Israel. (photo credit: AZIZ TAHER/REUTERS)
HEZBOLLAH MEMBERS wave Hezbollah and Lebanese flags during a 2015 rally in southern Lebanon marking the anniversary of the end of the terrorist organization’s 2006 war with Israel.
(photo credit: AZIZ TAHER/REUTERS)
Israel’s military will provide anti-missile protection to 20 strategic sites across the country, as well as build additional hardened aircraft hangers to protect against the threat posed by Hezbollah’s missile arsenal.
According to a report in Jane’s Defence Weekly, the Israeli Air Force is looking to build an unspecified number of strengthened aircraft hangars at a cost of $10 million in an area of about 4,000 sq.m.
The work will see the construction of about 1.5 km. of taxiways, 3.3 km. of service roads, 2,150 sq.m. of auxiliary facilities, 450 sq.m. of administrative buildings, 1,900 sq.m. of utilities tunnels and 5,600 sq.m. of general storage buildings, the report said, quoting a notice published on the USU Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website
In addition, according to a report in Haaretz, the IDF’s Home Front Command will strengthen the protection of several key sites across the country with walls of reinforced concrete, stronger ceilings, blast-proof doors and anti-shrapnel protection.
The IDF believes that the next war on the northern border will not be contained to one front, but will stretch along the entire northern border with both Lebanon and Syria. The military also expects that during the next war, Hezbollah will try to bring the fight to the home front by infiltrating Israeli communities to inflict significant civilian and military casualties.
The head of the Home Front Command warned last year that 2.5 million Israelis do not have adequate protection from Hezbollah missiles, and the government later designated an extra NIS 150m. for work to strengthen buildings around the country from rocket attacks.
Hezbollah’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah said in April that while Israel boasts about their missile defense system, it cannot defend the country’s citizens against the threat posed by Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal.
Hezbollah, which last fought a war against Israel in 2006 – the Second Lebanon War – has since morphed from a guerrilla group to an army with a set hierarchy and procedures. While Hezbollah is not believed to possess any precision missiles, it has substantially rebuilt its arsenal over the past 13 years, with hundreds of thousands of short-range rockets and several thousand more missiles that can reach deeper into Israel.
In an interview on Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV station, Nasrallah warned on Friday that “The 70 km. Israeli coast starting from Netanya and ending at Ashdod is under the resistance’s fire.”
Pulling out a map of Israel, Nasrallah pointed to strategic targets that he said Hezbollah could hit, including Ben-Gurion Airport, arms depots, petrochemical and water desalination plants, Tel Aviv, and the Ashdod Port.
Nasrallah said that there will be “surprises on the ground, in the air and at sea” in the next war between the two enemies, adding that the Lebanese Shi’ite group has game-changing weapons.
“Any war will be bigger than the 2006 war for Israel, and it will be put it on the brink of extinction,” he warned.