Eli Harel was an Israeli soldier in his early thirties when he was sent to Lebanon in 2006 to fight fighters from the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in a bloody, largely inconclusive, month-long war.
Now 50, Harel is ready to rejoin the army to fight the same group if shelling along Israel's northern border turns into all-out war with the region's most powerful proxy, Iran. This time, Israeli forces will face some of the most challenging combat conditions imaginable, he said, according to Reuters.
"There are mines everywhere," he told Reuters. "People are jumping out of tunnels. You have to be constantly alert or you'll be dead".
Harel lives in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, within range of Hezbollah's weapons. The mayor of Haifa recently urged residents to stock up on food and medicine due to the growing risk of all-out war.
Israel and Hezbollah have been part of an escalation of daily cross-border strikes over the past six months, parallel to the Gaza war, and their growing reach and sophistication have fueled fears of a wider regional conflict.
Hezbollah has amassed a huge arsenal since 2006.
Like Hamas, the Palestinian militant group fighting Israel in Gaza, Hezbollah has a network of tunnels to move fighters and weapons. Its fighters have also been training for more than a decade with the forces of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
Hizbollah has so far limited its attacks to part of northern Israel, seeking to draw Israeli forces away from Gaza. Israel has said it is ready to push Hezbollah back from the border, but it is not clear how.
Exiles in their own country
Some 60.000 residents have been forced from their homes, in the first mass evacuation of northern Israel, and are unable to return safely, prompting increased calls in Israel for tougher military action against Hezbollah. Across the border in Lebanon, some 90.000 people have also been displaced by Israeli strikes.
Eyal Hulata, Israel's former national security adviser, said Israel should announce a date in the next few months when displaced Israeli civilians will be allowed to return, effectively challenging Hezbollah to reduce shelling or face all-out war.
"Israelis cannot be in exile in their own country. That cannot happen. It is the responsibility of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) to defend civilians. That is what we did not do on October 7," he said.
Hezbollah did not respond to a request for comment. The group's leader, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, said in February that residents of northern Israel "will not return" to their homes.
Israel's military said this month it had completed another logistics-focused step in its preparations for a possible war with Hezbollah, including preparations for a "broad mobilization" of reservists.
A conflict between Israel and Hezbollah would likely result in mass destruction in both countries. In the 2006 war, 1.200 people were killed in Lebanon and 158 in Israel.
Since October, more than 300 people have been killed in fighting in the border area, mostly Hezbollah fighters.
If war were to break out, Israel would likely bomb targets in southern Lebanon before soldiers tried to push at least 10 kilometers across the border. Hezbollah would likely use its arsenal, estimated at over 150.000 rockets, to target Israeli cities. In 2006, the group fired about 4.000 missiles at Israel.
"Extensive" damage likely
Asaf Orion, a retired Israeli brigadier general, told Reuters that there was an increasing likelihood of war between Israel and Hezbollah, caused by either an unplanned escalation of the conflict or Israel losing patience because people cannot return home.
Orion said the intensity of bombing in any war could be 10 times greater than in Gaza.
"The damage will be enormous," he said. "Gaza will look like a walk in the park compared to that level of fighting."
Haifa, a port city built on a mountainside that overlooks the border with Lebanon on a clear day, was targeted in 2006. Eight people were killed in the worst attack.
Nasrallah said in 2016 that Hezbollah could hit the ammonia storage tanks in Haifa, saying the result would be "like a nuclear bomb."
The mood in Haifa is a mixture of anxiety and fatalism.
Hundreds of Israeli evacuees have crossed into the city and many have said another war may be the only way they can return home.
Asaf Hesed, 35, who lived in a kibbutz two kilometers from the border, said the army had until September to force Hezbollah back or the residents would move elsewhere.
"We have to make a decision soon about where we live, we can't go on like this for much longer," he said.
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