Missile onslaught in next war will not allow Tel Aviv cafes to stay open, IDF general warns
The head of the IDF's Homefront Command warns that Israel's next war will be "more challenging and complex."
By ANNA AHRONHEIMUpdated: NOVEMBER 28, 2018 21:26Paratroopers' brigade participate in a drill simulating battle against Hezbollah (August 6, 2018).(photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN’S UNIT)
Residents of Tel Aviv will not be enjoying coffee in cafes during the next war, the Head of the IDF’s Homefront Command said Wednesday, warning that “this is a thing of the past.”"In the next war in Gaza or on the northern front, Tel Aviv residents won't be able to drink their coffee,” Maj.-Gen. Tamir Yadai said at a conference for the heads of local authorities.“In 2019 there will be a more complex and challenging threat to Israel, along with the capabilities which we are familiar with. There is another geostrategic reality which presents us with new challenges and threats,” Yadai said at a conference for the heads of local authorities.“There is no dispute that the threat to the Israeli home front in the next war will be very challenging, especially around the ability to ensure essential services for the civilian population and the resilience of Israeli society,” Yadai said, explaining that the intensity of the next war is something that Israel is not yet familiar with.Hezbollah is known to have rebuilt their arsenal since the last war fought between the two in 2006, with at least 100,000 short-range rockets and several thousand more missiles that can reach central Israel, including Tel Aviv. Meanwhile on Israel’s southern front, Hamas is believed to have at least 10,000 rockets and mortar shells and Palestinian Islamic Jihad is said to have around 8,000 rockets and mortars shells.While Hezbollah has never fired on Tel Aviv, rockets launched by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have reached Israel’s commercial capital in the past.According to Yadai, Israel will also have to cope with the evacuation of thousands of residents away from the frontlines."The Middle East is organized differently. There is a possibility of launching military campaigns on both the northern and the southern fronts, since we are aware of coordination attempts," he said, adding that attempts to infiltrate into Israel as well as new cyber capabilities by Israel’s enemies are expected in any future conflict.Israel has never carried out a mandatory evacuation of any community since the founding of the state but in addition to the threat posed by Hezbollah rocket barrage, the IDF is now concerned about the very real possibility of ground attacks by the terror group’s Radwan unit against Israeli civilian communities in border communities.
As such, with close to 1 million Israelis living in Israel’s north, an estimated quarter million would be evacuated from 22 communities along the border in case a war breaks out with Hezbollah.Several thousands of residents living in communities bordering the Gaza Strip are also expected to be evacuated in the next war with Hamas and other terror groups in the coastal enclave.
