The Israeli Army carries out the largest military drill in twenty years

Israel begins the largest military exercise in the last two decades that for ten days will prepare the Army for a possible invasion by the Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah from Lebanon and into the country's northern territories.

«We want to check the level of preparation. (…) The objective is to practice at different levels of combat, including less predictable and dynamic environments based on what was learned and implemented in the Second Lebanon War,” explains a military officer.

The source insists that this test, led by the Northern Command and called “Or HaDagan”, has been in preparation for a year and does not represent “any change in the assessment of the security situation.”

During the next few days, the inhabitants of the region will see a greater number of combat tanks, military vehicles, planes flying over the area and Army ships.

Regular divisions, reservists, maneuver brigades, intelligence units, special forces, combat engineering forces, logistics and the Home Front Command will be deployed: in total, it is estimated that between 20.000 and 30.000 people will participate in the largest maneuvers since 1998 .

The drill will focus on defense around the border with Lebanon, the ability to conduct extensive firing exercises, the precision of intelligence units, achieving rapid response time, ground maneuvers, logistical support and fine-tuning coordination between the naval, air and land forces.

In 2006 and in this dividing area, Israel fought a war with the Shiite Islamist terrorist group Hezbollah that ended with a UN resolution and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force, UNIFIL.

Last week, the UN Security Council extended the mission for another year with a commitment to improve cooperation with the Lebanese armed forces after the US and Israel accused them of failing in their mission to maintain security in the allow the terrorist group to accumulate weapons. EFE and Aurora