EXCLUSIVE Hezbollah’s fearsome watchtowers where spies observe Israel’s Lebanon border and gather intelligence to launch an October 7-style massacre from the north

• A concrete enemy watch tower is barely 800 metres from Kfar Gil’adi kibbutz
• The Mail travelled to Israel’s evacuated northern border to see it firsthand 

When a concrete tower emerged overlooking the bucolic Hula Valley, the surrounding Israeli communities had no suspicion that they were being watched.

Locals assumed it was another grain silo, part of the idyllic northern region’s burgeoning agri-tech sector. But after the October 7 massacre the building’s sinister purpose was revealed.

The tower is a Hezbollah outpost from which the Iranian-backed terrorists had been secretly gathering information on them for over two years to launch an identical slaughter.

Now it rains down missiles on the Galilee Peninsula just metres away on the Lebanese border as part of a deadly barrage that forced 80,000 residents to flee south.

All this within eyesight of a UN building supposed to ensure the extremists do not come within 10 miles of the boundary and start a war that would make Gaza look like child’s play.

Nisan Ze’evi , a volunteer at the Kfar Gil’adi Kibbutz, Northern Israel, eight hundred metres away from the northern border with Lebanon

The tower is a Hezbollah outpost from which the Iranian-backed terrorists had been secretly gathering information on them for over two years to launch an identical slaughter

Picture shows Hezbollah soldiers spying close to the Lebanese border with Israel

‘Now we see reality in a different way,’ said local resident Nisan Ze’evi pointing to the enemy watch tower barely 800 metres from us in Kfar Gil’adi, subject to some of the fiercest bombardments.

The Daily Mail travelled to Israel’s evacuated northern border to witness firsthand the deadly game of cat and mouse between Hezbollah anti-tank fire and Israeli rockets.

Overhead UAVs buzzed on the lookout for Iranian-made suicide drones that just the day before had killed a 53-year-old father of four guarding nearby Margaliot.

Hezbollah fired 40 rockets in a single day last week and one stray strike would see Tel Aviv drawn into a terrifying northern front with the world’s most heavily armed nonstate army.

‘At about this time, the action begins,’ said Mr Ze’evi as the thump of a missile hitting 1km from us shook the valley usually known for the 500 million migratory birds that pass through its rich marshland each year. 

A few minutes later came the whoomph of Israel’s tit-for-tat response.

Mr Ze’evi is a tech start-up director who along with barely two dozen residents took up arms to guard their evacuated village near the northernmost point of Israel.

‘We had no idea they were so close,’ says the 40-year-old married father-of-two. 

‘Every farmer that we thought was just an innocent farmer just walking next to the border, we now understand they were collecting intelligence about where we live, where are the IDF forces, where are our children.’

A man with a camera collects information from inside Lebanon at a location near the Israel border

Following the 2006 Lebanon War, a United Nations resolution guaranteed that Hezbollah would be disarmed, and no armed militants would come south of the Litani River in Lebanon.

But the 11,000 soldiers from the United Nations Interim Force Lebanon (UNIFL) have failed to keep their word, so it is down to men like Mr Ze’evi and his band of CEOs, programmers and businessmen to deal with the threat.

They form the Rapid Response Unit led by commander Asaf Shaposnik, a 52-year-old married father-of-three who was running the local quarry only a couple of months ago.

‘We don’t have any other choice,’ said Mr Ze’evi, whose wife, Bosmat, also 40, evacuated the dream home they built together October 8 with their children Eitan, eight, and Ariel, five.

‘This is what we learnt from October 7 in the south. Everyone here close to the border is aiming to collect intelligence, collect targets and eventually to fulfill the main goal to invade.’

The enemy watch tower stands barely 800 metres from in Kfar Gil’adi

The concrete tower overlooks the bucolic Hula Valley

While Hezbollah and their tower remain none of the evacuated 30 communities dotted across the mountainous 75 mile (120km) border will return. 

Beyond the daily rocket fire, it serves as a reminder that their murderous intent could come to fruition any day.

READ MORE: Israel ‘is planning a new ground war against Hezbollah after Gaza campaign’ with officials warning October 7 massacre would be ‘nothing compared’ to a terror attack from the north

Speaking with an M16 slung over his shoulder, Mr Ze’evi, who now has only his five-year-old boxer dog, Joy, and cat Oscar for company, said: ‘This region is like Cornwall to Britain. Nobody would accept this there.

‘That tower is an iconic symbol and it must be destroyed.

‘If the US and France and Britain can sort this diplomatically, perfect. But if not, we will demand from our government to bring all the power of the IDF to have a buffer zone of 10 kilometres. Anyone enters into this buffer zone will be shot in the head.’

Referring to a kibbutz on the Gaza border where nearly every resident was either killed or taken hostage, he adds: ‘We will not be Be’eri 2.0.

‘It was like a trailer, like a promo of what could happen here. We all know what Hezbollah is aiming to do here. They will come down the road and slaughter us all.’

Indeed, Hezbollah have not hidden their intent. The hardline Islamic regime broadcast on its TV channel a plan to blitz the region with rocket fire before sending in a ground force of 5,000 militants.

They would block off mountain roads, storm the civilians in the Kibbutz and take as many women and children hostage as possible while slaughtering the men.

If this sounds familiar that is no accident, explains Sarit Zehavi, a retired lieutenant colonel in Israeli intelligence who is an expert on the perilous northern border.

Black smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab, a Lebanese border village with Israel in south Lebanon, Monday, Nov. 13, 2023

‘When you see this, you see the plan was not written in Gaza – it was written in Tehran,’ said the founder of Alma Research and Education Center.

‘Somebody chose the south to start. This is the plan for the north – it could take a month, two months, one year, two years, I don’t know. But it is clear to us that this was the plan for two fronts.’

The mother-of-two who also lives in Upper Galilee adds: ‘When I close my eyes I see the women that were raped in Gaza, and we understand that this was supposed to happen to us.’

A UNIFIL spokesman said: ‘We are deeply concerned by the violence we have seen along the Blue Line since 8 October and are in constant contact with authorities in Lebanon and Israel to urge all parties involved to stop their fire and work toward a political solution.

‘We consistently remind all parties that using locations near our positions to launch attacks across the Blue Line is unacceptable and constitutes a violation of Resolution 1701.’

Source: Read Full Article