Lt. Col. (Res.) Avitar, an expert on the Palestinian arena, addressed the escalation of the war in the north, saying that Hezbollah has received a green light from Iran to expand its attacks against Israel.
In an interview with Radio 103FM, Avitar also referred to reports about the assassination of Ali Karaki: "Ali Karaki exists. In Hezbollah, they say –who knows if it's true– that they deliberately planted a spy to lure them into a trap. They talk about discovering who gave Israel information about the locations of their senior officials last time, and [they say that] they identified him [the mole] in an internal check and fed him false information and his fate was sealed. This is Hezbollah's story this morning."
He added, "I think that at the current point in time, from Hezbollah's perspective, there is a significant internal Lebanese pressure, but Hezbollah still understands the new rules of the game that we are setting for ourselves, and within them, it allows itself to fire towards more distant targets in Israel."
On the data regarding IDF hits in Lebanon: "There are different versions regarding the IDF's hit percentages, we can't verify or cross-reference, at least not from the open material. It's definitely a significant hit, but Hezbollah still has significant reserves, it won't want to stay on the red line. I think Nasrallah has an independent sphere of activity, he received a green light from the Iranians in general terms. He understands, certainly in the past year."
Regarding the next stage of the war, Avitar said: "We are not at a point where this leverage will be a tiebreaker, but Nasrallah sees the waves approaching him. As time passes and we are within the Israeli momentum regarding the attacks, I think [he will be in serious trouble]. In southern Lebanon, people are stuck without fuel, without electricity. Hezbollah's big fear is significant Israeli hits within the Dahieh area."
