Israeli PM issues strong warning to Hezbollah

Founded in the chaos of the fifteen-year Lebanese civil war, Hezbollah is driven by its opposition to Israel and its resistance to Western influence in West Asia. So far, Israel and Hezbollah have stopped short of reviving the full-scale war they fought in 2006. A repeat of the 2006 scenario will force Israel's military to fight on two fronts, stretching its forces thin. Hamas and other Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip have a variety of homemade or smuggled rockets at their disposal to use against Israel. Hezbollah can rain fire on targets throughout Israel, including with far more advanced and hard-hitting weaponry than what Hamas has been able to muster. In 2016, estimates put its arsenal at around 150-thousand rockets, a tenfold increase over the roughly 15-thousand that were said to be available ahead of the 2006 Lebanon war. That number has since grown even larger. Hezbollah also possesses short-range ballistic missiles, drones, and anti-ship missiles.