Lebanon escalation could severely impact Haifa; homefront must be ready, Israeli defense minister warns

The homefront must be ready for the potentially serious impact of an escalation of the skirmishes with the Hezbollah terror organization in Lebanon, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Tuesday.

Speaking during a situational assessment of the Haifa metropolitan area, Gallant stated: “We may end up with violent action, whose consequences could reach the Haifa district as well, and that should be taken into account.”

Since the day after the murderous Hamas invasion on Oct. 7, Hezbollah has carried out daily attacks on Israeli targets, causing some 80,000 Israeli residents to evacuate their homes.

Diplomatic efforts led by the United States and France, aimed at causing Hezbollah to withdraw its forces from the border following UN Resolution 1701, have not seen any success so far.

“I say here clearly – the possibility of a political settlement is exhausting itself. The stage will come when our patience and our ability to bear this matter will expire,” Gallant warned.

“We are committed to returning the residents of the north to their homes, we are talking about 80,000 citizens who are refugees in their country, for four months,” the defense minister continued.

“We aim to do it quickly, we are interested in returning them safely – it will be done either through a diplomatic process, or it will be done by creating security conditions through a military operation that can deteriorate into anything – this is the basic scenario.”

If the conflict leads to an all-out war with Hezbollah, Gallant warned that “the situation in Haifa will not be good, but in Beirut, the situation will be devastating.”

The defense minister added that alongside the military build-up, the civilian sector is also being prepared, and the IDF’s Home Front Command has received clear instructions on how to proceed in case an all-out war breaks out.

The IDF and experts widely expect a war with Hezbollah to cause several magnitudes greater harm to the country than the current war with Hamas did.

In addition to having larger and better trained and equipped ground forces, Hezbollah’s weapons stockpiles are estimated to far surpass Hamas’ rocket fire capabilities.

The Lebanese terror group has an arsenal of some 150,000 rockets and missiles, many of them being guided and capable of precise strikes, enabling it to keep up massive barrages of thousands of rockets per day over long periods, and to precisely target critical infrastructure.

In addition, Hezbollah has thousands more explosive drones, mortar grenades and guided anti-tank missiles.

In light of this threat, Israel has begun preparing for such a scenario.

On Tuesday, Ynet News reported that a subcommittee of the Knesset’s Health committee discussed a scenario of several days of blackouts across the nation's ministry representatives, the IDF Home Front Command, rescue services, and the national electric company.

At the same time, an internal message sent to employees of the Justice Ministry urged them to be ready for “several days of darkness in the country, without electricity, in preparation for the possibility of war in the north.”

The message continued: “The National Emergency Authority instructed the government ministries to prepare for the possibility of severe damage to the infrastructure and national power, with at least 60% of the population being cut off from electricity for a period of 24 to 48 hours, and in some areas, this may also last 72 hours.”

“If there is no electricity – there is no lighting, no heating, there will be no hot water… Paying and withdrawing cash will not be possible everywhere, there may be severe disruptions in public transportation and roads will be congested, supermarkets will not be stocked, educational institutions will be closed and there will be disruptions in the Internet network.”

The ministry later clarified that these were only refinements to existing instructions and no extraordinary announcement.