Israel has repeatedly shattered Hezbollah and Hamas on the battlefield, only to watch them rebuild for the next war. The problem is not a lack of Israeli military power or resolve, but a lack of political will to resist international pressure, reject premature ceasefires, and refuse withdrawals until enforceable arrangements lock in those battlefield gains.

Hezbollah and Hamas occupy different positions within Tehran’s network, but both function as the mullahs’ forward armies against the Jewish state. They bleed Israel’s armed forces, obstruct Arab-Israeli normalization, and weaken Jerusalem’s regional partnerships. Both also embed weapons and military infrastructure in civilian areas, exploiting Israeli restraint and converting their own survival into propaganda victories.

Israel’s May 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon remains the clearest warning. The withdrawal was supposed to bring quiet. Instead, Hezbollah portrayed the Jewish state’s departure as a historic defeat and used the territory the IDF had vacated to prepare for the next confrontation. Backed by around $1 billion annually from Tehran, the Lebanese Shiite terrorist organization strategically rearmed and entrenched itself along Israel’s northern border.

Following the 2006 war, Hezbollah openly violated UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which prohibited unauthorized armed forces and weapons between the Blue Line and the Litani River. By late 2023, its arsenal had grown from a few thousand rockets to an estimated 150,000 rockets, missiles, and drones. Hezbollah also built an extensive network of tunnels, bunkers, and fortified positions across southern Lebanon. After October 7, 2023, those capabilities sustained attacks that forced roughly 80,000 Israelis from their northern communities.

Gaza followed the same pattern. Israel removed every soldier and civilian from the Strip in 2005. The Palestinian Authority initially assumed control, but Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary election the following year and, after a bloody civil war, seized Gaza from Fatah in 2007. Within two years of Israel’s departure, the territory had become an Iranian-backed terrorist stronghold.

Once entrenched, Hamas transformed Gaza into an authentic military fortress. Israeli assessments placed its underground network at hundreds of kilometers, with approximately 5,700 access shafts, many near or beneath civilian infrastructure. Between 2001 and 2026, Palestinian terrorist organizations have fired around 50,000 rockets and mortars at Israel, progressing from crude Qassams to longer-range Fajr-5,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)