IDF is beyond pre withdrawel buffer zone

Haaretz:

Israel Defense Forces special forces operating in the last few days south of the city of Tyre destroyed three rocket launchers, a bunker, munitions warehouses and vehicles used by Hezbollah, it was reported on Sunday.

In separate gunbattles, IDF reservists exchanged fire with Hezbollah guerillas near Ras a-Beida, south of Tyre. The clashes were part of the IDF's slow extension of the buffer zone it created with the entry of ground forces into Lebanon.

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The IDF actually advanced in several places beyond the buffer zone it maintained until May 2000, when Israel withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon under then-prime minister Ehud Barak.

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Three guerillas were captured over the weekend in an IDF raid on the village of Sham'a, in the west of South Lebanon. The three were engaging in rocket launching at Israel, the radio said.

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These incursions seem to be more raids than combat persisting attacks, so it is hard to say what the significance of attacks beyond the old buffer zone might be, other than the obvious of destroying launch sites and capturing enemy rocket launchers.

Shimon Peres has offered some interesting time lines to the beginning of the conflict.

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They (the Iranians) are behind it. There is one connection that remains questionable. [Javier] Solana [foreign policy chief of the European Union] visited Tehran on July 11 and got a totally negative response [on restraining the Iranian nuclear program] and Hezbollah struck on the 12th of July.

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I see it as three confrontations. One is an attempt to destroy Israel. They thought they'd break our morale and we'd become scared. The second is about Lebanon, which is not less important. They want to de-Lebanize Lebanon -- to transform it from a multicultural country into a Shiite country under the spell of the Iranians. And the third -- the real confrontation in the Middle East -- is between the Arabs and the Iranians for the hegemony of the Middle East. It's not a surprise that countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan stood up openly against Hezbollah.

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He goes on to say that Hezballah has lost two of their six commanders. However, it seems obvious that Hezballah is still using effective command and control despite the Israeli effort. That command and control has not resulted in any significant military advantage for Hezballah, which continues to be attrited in manpower as well as munitions.