KIRYAT SHMONA, Northern Israel – Following Israel's partial withdrawal from southern Gaza, more attention is being paid to Hezbollah's threat to the northern border. In the latest development, the Israeli military has announced a transition from defense to attack mode.

Israeli residents still living in the region are becoming increasingly concerned, particularly given reports that Hezbollah is more dangerous than ever.

Toby Abutbul is one of them and he knows how lucky he is to be alive.

At 11:08 a.m. on February 13, Abutbul was driving along the main street in Kiryat Shmona, near the Lebanese border, when his car's dashcam captured the moment a Hezbollah rocket landed a few meters away from him.

“I was driving through the city streets and an anti-tank missile hit right in front of me without warning, there wasn't even a siren to warn of an incoming missile,” he remembers.

He immediately stopped, parked his car, turned on his hazard lights, jumped out and took cover behind his car. Seconds later, the second rocket hit, injuring a mother and her child. Then came the sirens.

Three months earlier, on November 2, Hezbollah fired 12 rockets into northern Israel. Two of the rockets landed right next to Abutbul's restaurant.

Surveillance video shows the moment his father and two siblings entered the family restaurant just before the rocket's impact knocked them to the ground. Luckily they weren't seriously injured.

“It was scary. My little sisters and my father were here with me, but we quickly got into the bunker and realized there was no place to play. “It was very serious,” says Abutbul.

No one was seriously injured, but home video shows a number of businesses engulfed in flames.

Five months later, he's nervous about what lies ahead.

“I believe that Israel and Hezbollah will go to war,” says Abutbul.

***Please sign up for the CBN newsletter and download the CBN News app to ensure you continue to receive the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

The traffic lights here in downtown Kiryat Shmona are flashing because there is hardly any traffic to speak of. It is a scene that is unfolding along the Israel-Lebanon border. About 60,000 Israelis had to evacuate from such cities.

In 2006, the last time Israel and Hezbollah were at war, the circumstances and situations were very different. Today Hezbollah is a much more powerful army.

What is different about this conflict than 2006?

Former IDF intelligence officer Sarit Zehavi, now with the Alma Research and Education Center, says: “Hezbollah is different. Hezbollah is much stronger, has much more ammunition, accurate missiles and the ability to invade.”

Zehavi is a leading expert on Hezbollah. She has been tracking the various weapons used by the terrorist group here in the north since October 8th, the day after the Hamas massacre.

In addition to more than 3,000 missiles, Zehavi said Hezbollah has begun firing more advanced Iranian-made weapons for the first time, including the ALMAS-1 anti-tank missile.

“These are long-range, short-range aircraft, very accurate, no warnings, Iron Dome cannot intercept them,” says Zehavi.

.

Israel normally cannot protect itself from these infrared-guided missiles. “Only when they are used against tanks, but usually they are used against everything else, civilians, military, whatever,” Zehavi says.

In January, Hezbollah reportedly released a video showing an ALMA-1 with a nose-mounted camera targeting an IDF intelligence base.

“Instead of a terrorist organization, we are facing a terrorist army. An army that has around 200,000 different types of rockets, drones, rockets, mortars and various types that can arrive anywhere in Israel,” says Zehavi.

Hezbollah is also said to have around 100,000 fighters. Hezbollah's so-called spearhead is the Radwan Force, an elite unit of up to 3,000 fighters focused on infiltrating Israel's northern border.

Zehavi points out: “And having participated in the civil war in Syria, their ground forces are much more professional, much better equipped and even – you know what – even more motivated to carry out a ground invasion because Hezbollah has mobilized them over the years.” that this is their mission.

On Monday, the IDF released a video of an attack in southern Lebanon that reportedly killed a senior Radwan commander. Warplanes also reportedly attacked a Radwan military compound.

“Since Hezbollah opened the northern front against Israel, the IDF has attacked 4,000 targets – 10 percent of which were against Hezbollah commandos. “That’s a very impressive number,” says Zehavi.

She says a major challenge for the IDF in an all-out war would be trying to identify Hezbollah foot soldiers and weapons depots.

As CBN News discovered during a recent trip to southern Lebanon, the terrorist group is adept at hiding within the civilian population.

“Like Hamas, Hezbollah has entrenched itself in the villages and is using the Lebanese as human shields. And everything you saw in Gaza, as far as hiding the ammunition in the hospital, in the mosques and in the houses, exists in the same way. “Hezbollah,” says Zehavi.

The Israeli military has announced that it is “preparing to transition from defense to attack” during operations on the northern border.

Experts believe there will be a war between Hezbollah and Israel in the next six to eight months. Zehavi's home here in northern Israel is less than eight kilometers from Hezbollah military positions.

“We are no longer willing to sleep next to this monster,” she says. “We want the threat to be defeated because we have learned that once they have the ability to slaughter us, they will eventually use that ability. So the only way to combat this is to try to eliminate or at least damage as much of this ability as possible.