Falcon29
Elite Member
They were always good at ground warfare. They know their geography well and execute high quality ambushes. Probably highest of any paramilitary non state organization (maybe not professional ones as Wagner and other European ones but for smaller Islamic resistance groups that can't get access to certain weapons because of anti-terror legislation US pushes and threatens nations with )
But yes they did learn from 2024 in sense Israel was annihilating villages before entering with troops so that was new to Hezbollah.
Israel is doing that again and as a result Hezbollah is deploying longer range ambushes using the effective tools to do so from a distance as a workaround to Israel's scorched earth tactics.
In Gaza it's street to street. Hamas relies on blowing up homes IDF forces are stationed in, firing RPGs at them, using snipers + trying to get close enough to engage in close quarters combat + using cameras everywhere in Gaza to identify troop movements
In Lebanon it's longer distance ambushes, looks like Hezbollah has thermal capabilities to identify movements at night and because of southern Lebanon geography (smaller less populated villages) they can fire heavily without worrying about engaging Lebanese civilians as there aren't many homes around in these areas
If it went into Beirut we will see intense close quarters combat and a different style of combat, but idk if Hezbollah has an extensive tunnel systems in Beirut to move fighters from block to block /house to house like Hamas did in Gaza.
Beirut is a big unknown for both sides. I don't think Hezbollah wants them to get anywhere near there and will do everything in their hands to keep them below Litani river.
Israel may not want to go that deep either because it would be harder to get their forces out. Gaza is much smaller and Israeli forces can more easily be evacuated or backed up during combat. Due to the coastal area and areas near border that allow IDF forces to move freely.
Lebanon is much bigger than Gaza and Beirut is backed up in a corner. If IDF tried ground occupation Hezbollah will come from every direction.
The only potential moves Israel can make is very small localized hit and run with special forces off sea of Beirut and immediately withdrawing.
Essentially ground invasion deep into Lebanon would be deadly for Israel and go very bad for them. Would overstretch their forces too. They don't have enough troops to do that while also watch borders with Syria + Egypt and maintain occupations of West Bank and Gaza.
In short, Hezbollah has upper hand in that they will survive ground war because of Lebanon's strategic depth. Even if they lose some territory in southern Lebanon. It won't bring about a strategic advantage for Israel.
Gaza on other hand lacks strategic depth despite Hamas putting up an incredible fight, they cannot stop the occupation of Gaza.
