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Saturday, April 4, 2026
IDF Northern Command chief: Israel overestimated damage done to Hezbollah’s capabilities after 2024 war
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Security officials overestimated the damage done to Hezbollah’s military capabilities by Israeli forces following the army’s 2024 ground offensive, says Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, chief of the IDF’s Northern Command, in recordings aired by Channel 12 news.
The senior officer met on Tuesday with a group from Misgav Am after one of the northern kibbutz’s residents, 60-year-old Ofer Moskovitz, was mistakenly killed by IDF artillery shelling last month.
During the meeting, Milo apologizes to residents, takes responsibility, and says the lethal incident “shouldn’t have happened.”
He then admits there is a “gap” between the IDF’s assessment of damage caused to Hezbollah’s offensive capabilities during the 2024 ground operation in southern Lebanon, and the force with which the terror group has been striking Israel’s northern communities in the current war.
“There is a gap between how we finished [Operation] ‘Northern Arrows’ and what we understood and thought, and how suddenly, we still find Hezbollah [active]. What I’m sure is concerning you all is the steep-trajectory [rocket] fire,” Milo says to residents.
He adds that Hezbollah’s rockets are still not being launched in “very, very large amounts” and adds that most of the rockets are aimed at IDF forces.
However, according to the outlet, the IDF shifted its assessment in the wake of Hezbollah’s heavy barrages at Israel over the course of the Passover holiday, which began Wednesday night.
Now, officials reportedly estimate that the terror group has hundreds of launchers and tens of thousands of rockets at its disposal.
In another audio clip from the meeting with residents, Milo casts doubt on whether the joint US-Israeli offensive against Iran will manage to topple the Islamic Republic.
“I assess that this [war] won’t end in some sort of overthrow of the regime; it seems it is still stable despite the upheaval it’s going through. There will probably need to be some sort of agreement,” he says.
The Times of Israel Community.