Israel plans to evacuate over 1 Million Lebanese in a future war with Hezbollah

In  a Future war the Israeli army is planning   to evacuate more than one  million civilians in southern Lebanon before attacking  Hezbollah targets in the area, a senior military official was quoted as saying

The official , who was not identified, told the Jerusalem Post daily published on Thursday that large-scale Hezbollah rocket and missile fire would be met with civilian evacuations, massive Israeli aerial strikes, followed by a ground offensive.

“If we have no choice, we have to evacuate 1 million, 1.5 million residents in Lebanon, and act,” the official  said. “Hezbollah should not plan to fire on us and try to kill our civilians, and expect that we would respond by acting according to standards it seems to think only exist here.”

Failure to evacuate the civilian population would result in many thousands of non-combatant deaths, according to Israeli army assessments.

The official spoke as the Israeli military concluded  a week-long drill simulating conflict on multiple fronts, including the Israeli airforce, said the newspaper.

Israelis officials have repeatedly warned of a new conflict with Hezbollah, vowing to strike the party’s strongholds which could result in a large number of civilian casualties.

They claim that Hezbollah has been building up its firepower since the 2006 war between the party and Israel.

The officials also continuously accuse the party of using the civilians as a human shield.

The Israeli official  told the Jerusalem Post that Hezbollah is “in distress” in Syria and is in strategic trouble despite attempts by its Secretary General  Hassan Nasrallah to deliver morale-boosting speeches.

Over a million Southern Lebanese ( Mainly Shiites )  were displaced in  the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and were provided with food  and shelter by the rest of the Lebanese .   But the Iranian backed party is reportedly concerned that in future wars its back will not be protected because of what it is doing in Syria  and  therefore many of the evacuated  Shiites could suffer  greatly