In 2006, Eli Harel, an Israeli soldier in his early thirties, was dispatched to Lebanon to engage Hezbollah forces in a brutal and mostly fruitless month-long combat.
At fifty, Harel is prepared to re-enlist in the army and battle the same group in the event that the shelling of Israel’s northern border escalates into a full-scale conflict with Iran’s most potent regional operative. He said that this time, Israeli forces would encounter some of the most difficult combat situations conceivable.
He told Reuters, “There are booby traps everywhere.” “Human beings are emerging from underground. You will not survive if you are not continuously vigilant.”
Living in Haifa, the third-largest city in Israel, Harel is in close proximity to Hezbollah’s armaments.
