IOF Armored Corps (Archive)

Israeli media reported Tuesday that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) officers warned that the Ground Forces are "ill-prepared" for a war.

In a report, Israel Hayom pointed out that since the July 2006 war on Lebanon, the IOF "has made a calculated choice to reduce the deployment of its Ground Forces, favoring the Israeli Air Force instead, mostly with the aim of minimizing casualties."

The newspaper indicated that when IOF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi took office in 2019, "he set out to improve the Ground Forces' operational capabilities, but with only a few months left on his term, senior officers warn that despite his best intentions, the reality on the ground is far different from the vision he introduced."

According to the report, some IOF commanders feel that "military brass and the political echelon have little faith in their abilities," adding that these claims "grew following the decision not to deploy any ground troops" during the Israeli so-called "Operation Guardian of the Walls" in May 2021.

Israel Hayom pointed out that senior IOF officers argued that ground maneuvers must always be the last resort, stressing that the next war with Lebanon requires such deployment to ensure the IOF "has the upper hand."

The newspaper highlighted that Israeli Ground Forces officers "cautioned that the Armored Corps, which shoulders the bulk of ground maneuvers, has been eroded to the point where its operational capabilities have been jeopardized."

The report explained that the "Armored Corps has been plagued with budget cuts for years and its pivotal role in any military operations receives little media attention," and the IOF "shuttered several Armored Corps brigades – in regular service and in the reserves – over the past few decades."

Israel Hayom highlighted that the number of IOF tanks has diminished in 2022, revealing that the Israeli Armored Corps "now has only three armored brigades in regular service, one training brigade that joins the fighting forces in wartime, and only a handful of reserves brigades – all of which suffer from chronic personnel shortages."

The report concluded that if the IOF's "armored brigades are ill-prepared for the war, the military's maneuverability as a whole would face a challenge."

This come right after Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah related to Al Mayadeen, as part of the "Dialogue of the 40th Anniversary", the achievements of the Resistance over the past several decades.

Warning the Israeli occupation against committing any provocations against Lebanon, Sayyed Nasrallah said there were no Israeli targets in the sea or land out of the reach of the Resistance's precision missiles.

Sayyed Nasrallah underscored that the Israeli occupation realized, through the July war, that confrontation with the resistance was dangerous and that the resistance's capabilities were much more than just confrontations at the border.

"Since 2006, the enemy does not dare take any action against Lebanon," the Resistance leader said, noting that "Tel Aviv" was only resorting to run-of-the-mill operations that leave no mark in Lebanon.