By Staff In an opinion piece written by Sharon Wrobel that tackled the ‘Israeli’ military’s simulation of a war with Hezbollah, The Algemeiner published the following: In a Sunday morning in January, Lt.

Ilay Levy, squad commander in an elite ‘Israeli’ paratrooper unit, drove to the Golan Heights as if he was called up for war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Levy was part of a four-day drill in the ‘Israeli’ entity’s wooded, hilly north, allowing troops to practice fighting in the terrain they would face in combat and to test their readiness for a potential escalation with Hezbollah.

“[We] simulated fighting as if we were at war with Lebanon,” Levy told The Algemeiner in a recent interview.

“[It] was quite difficult and hard because of the cold and harsh weather conditions and a lack of sleep, which challenged the strength of the soldiers and improved our readiness against the enemy.” The drill involved combining advanced means of observation with tanks, drones, and artillery, in scenarios focused on fighting in the northern theater.

The drill also sought to specifically strengthen the “resilience” of the battalion by improving the mental and physical capabilities, as well as combat fitness, of the soldiers, the ‘Israeli’ military said.

Levy said that one of the challenges paratroopers face is integrating with different forces to fight in unison.

“During the drill, there was a lot of emphasis on combined combat — for example, with tanks and integrating the fighting of ground troops with the ‘Israeli’ Air Force,” he said.

“This is where we need to improve.” The exercise comes as Hezbollah’s efforts to acquire and develop precision-guided missiles [PGM] in Lebanon has grown into a major security threat along the ‘Israeli’ entity’s northern border.

Hezbollah has an estimated arsenal of about 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at the ‘Israeli’ home front, along with thousands of operatives.

Should war break out, the ‘Israeli’ military believes Hezbollah could fire more than 2,000 rockets and missiles a day for at least the first days of fighting.

They consist of thousands of short-range missiles or rockets, between hundreds and thousands of medium-range missiles, and dozens of long-range missiles, according to ‘Israel’s’ Alma research and education center