Arab News Japan

TOKYO: There are signs of further clashes between Hezbollah and Israel’s military and Iran is deeply involved in it, a Japanese monthly magazine has reported.

“There seems to be a shadow headquarters for operations in Beirut,” Sentaku magazine said in an article in its July issue. “The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad acknowledged frequent visits of a top commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to this HQ”.

A Western source in the Middle East told Sentaku that the Joint Operation Command Center for Iran, Hezbollah and high military officials in Gaza was unofficially established to analyze the situation on the ground and to discuss how to provide arms to Gaza.

The current clashes in the region caught the military analysts of Middle Eastern countries by surprise because “unlimited” number of missiles were launched from Gaza. A total of 4,300 missiles were launched, according to Sentaku, which added: “Those missiles even reached near Tel-Aviv which is 70 km away from Gaza. They are not ‘hand-made’ missiles used by Hamas but high-quality ‘industrially-made’ missiles smuggled from Iran.”

Hezbollah is said to be much stronger than official army of Lebanon, but it needs to be concerned about the economic situation in Lebanon. The Lebanese people have been suffering economically, partly because of the huge port blast and also because of COVID-19. Hezbollah needs to consider the situation of the Lebanese people.

Two factors could affect the situation between Israel and Hezbollah.

One is the plans of Iran’s newly elected President Ebrahim Raisi. The second is the domestic situation of Lebanon, according to Sentaku. Even though the new Iranian president is conservative, the voting rate was the lowest ever and people’s expectations are low.

On the other hand, Israel has had a change of Prime Minister for the first time in 12 years. Naftali Bennett is known as a hardliner with extensive experience in the military as well as actual fighting against Hezbollah.

Israel’s military is simulating a ‘Northern War’ where missiles will be launched from three directions – Lebanon, Syria and Iraq – because Iran and Hezbollah will also use pro-Iranian armed organizations in Syria and Iraq.

Iran and Israel have been engaged in a hidden war using cyberattacks. If this was the first round, the fight by missiles in May was the second round.  The Northern War will be the third round.