Executive Summary

• Israel has broken the 11 month-long stalemate on its northern border by launching an all-out campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon. This has included over 4,000 airstrikes, the elimination of the vast majority of the terror group’s leadership including Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, and a limited ground incursion to confiscate weapons and remove the threat of attack tunnels.

• This followed Hezbollah’s unprovoked attacks that commenced on October 8, 2023, defined by the terrorist group as a “Lebanese support front” of Hamas’ October 7 massacre. Hezbollah has so far fired over 10,000 missiles, rockets, anti-tank missiles, and drones at Israel, triggering the evacuation of over 60,000 Israelis from 43 communities in the north, now displaced for over a year.

• Being Iran’s protégé, Hezbollah has been benefiting from economic support and advanced weapons from Tehran, posing a significant threat on Israel as a frontal Iranian base, impacting the balance of power in the region and strengthening Iran’s Shiite axis.

• During the first 11 months of the war, Israel’s tit-for-tat policy maintained a defensive posture in the north, to allow the IDF to focus on the Gaza front.

• Since mid-September, however, Israel’s renewed momentum has ushered in an opportunity to revise the…