The Goldstone report which criticized Israel's operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in 2009, will pale in comparison to what will happen to Lebanon in a future war with Hezbollah, a senior IDF officer in the Northern Command said on Thursday.
"The destruction will be greater in Lebanon than in Israel and the amount of explosives which will fall there will be far more than what will fall here...We will need to be strong and aggressive," the officer said.
Brig.-Gen. Herzi Halevy, commander of Division 91, clarified the remark and told reporters that the destruction will be extensive due to Hezbollah's decision to establish its command posts and bases inside villages and towns throughout Lebanon.
Halevy, who commanded over the Paratroopers Brigade during Operation Cast Lead in 2009, said that Israel will take immediate action - from the air and on the ground - in a future war that will cause "extensive damage but not as a punishment but rather to hit the enemy where it is."
"The damage will be far greater [in Lebanon] than the Second Lebanon War," Halevy said.
"The past six years have been the quietest along the border in more than 40 years," Halevy said in a briefing marking six years since the Second Lebanon War. "But we understand that there is more than one catalyst that can potentially break the quiet."
Halevy said that a potential attack against Iran's nuclear facilities - no matter by who - or the ongoing uprising in Syria could spark a potential conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
The IDF has spent the past year upgrading its defenses along the border. A few weeks ago, it complicated the construction of a concrete wall between the Israeli border town of Metula and the Lebanese town of Kfar Kila. The IDF decided to build a wall along that section of the border to minimize friction between the sides.
Since the war, in addition to Hezbollah's extensive rearmament and procurement of tens of thousands of rockets and missiles, the IDF has detected a concerted effort by the guerrilla group to gather intelligence on Israeli military positions along the border.
The IDF released photos on Thursday showing Hezbollah operatives with surveillance gear along the border filming IDF movements and deployments.
In a film recently captured by the IDF, two cars are shown arriving near the border. Men wearing hoodies are seen exiting the cars and surveying the border. One of them is holding papers. IDF assessments are that that the group was possibly planning an attack against Israel along the border.
"They brings operatives from northern Lebanon to teach them about the South and the terrain where they will be expected to operate in a future war," another officer in the Northern Command said.