Page 163 - Airpower in 20th Century - Doctrines and Employment

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tHe military doCtrine of tHe israeli air forCe

Hezbollah. This time made up of Lebanese Shiite Moslems supported by Syria and
Iran who supplied the organization with modern ground-to-ground missiles, Katyu-
sha rockets and other armaments. Once again, Israel found itself fighting a terror-
ist organization on its northern border. Despite these attacks, Israel refrained from
another all out campaign, limiting itself to counter attacks mainly through use of the
air force.
This situation lasted for many years with the Hezbollah growing stronger and
being supplied with both medium and long-range missiles by Iran and Syria, and
the Lebanese authorities being helpless against it. In the year of 2006, in an attack
on an Israeli patrol on the border, the Hezbollah killed 8 soldiers and kidnapped two
others. This time Israel decided to react with force against the terrorists. The IAF
opened a massive attack on the long range missiles that were in the center and north
of Lebanon and destroyed them in the first wave. The terrorists retaliated with a mas-
sive barrage of missiles on the north of Israel causing extensive damage and loss of
life. Dozens of houses and factories were damaged and the population was forced to
remain in shelters. The IAF attacked the Hezbollah and Shiite Center in Beirut with
full force and totally destroyed it.
The war ended with the intervention of the UN. An agreement was reached in
which the Hezbollah would no longer have bases on the Israeli border with a UN
force being stationed in south Lebanon to ensure its implementation. Up to this day
(2010), the northern border has remained quiet.

The Gaza War 2008 “Oferet Yetsuka Operation” (Cast Lead)
The south of the country was also not quiet considering that the terror organiza-
tions were active in the overcrowded refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. After Israel
unilaterally withdrew from the Strip in August 2005, the extremist group Hamas
gained control and vowed to continue the fight against Israel. When Israel built fences
that prevented infiltration from the Strip, the Hamas group started to fire home made
rockets against the civilian Israeli population of the towns and settlements around
the Strip. This situation lasted for eight years, in which time thousands of rockets
and mortars were fired from the strip, and although the loss of life and damage to
property was not very serious, it resulted in trauma to all the civilian population in
the south area of the country. The political decision not to attack the Gaza Strip was
seen by Hamas as a sign of weakness and fear on the part of Israel.
The mortar and missile fire from the Strip, escalated in the absence of any reac-
tion from Israel, until eventually, there was no choice other than to put a stop to it
once and for all. At the end of December 2008 the IDF was activated against Hamas,
the Israeli Army and the IAF attacked and destroyed numerous Hamas targets, and
the result was that from that time on the border with Gaza is relatively quiet (2010).