How Israel repelled a mass invasion on October 7th, regained the upper hand with Iran, yet now faces a major December 31st deadline to disarm Hezbollah

A crisp November day brought my wife, Karen, and me to Israel’s northern border, where we joined the professionals of Livnot U’Lehibanot (“to build and be rebuilt”) to repair Shalom’s heavily-damaged family home in Kibbutz Avivim.  Shalom pointed to the Lebanese Shiite village from which Hezbollah blew up their home almost two years ago. Livnot’s construction foreman, Gal, a neighbor and IDF Commando Reserve Unit member, introduced himself. As he taught us to safely remove rebar and concrete, he recounted a chilling, yet heroic, story of the war’s northern front.

The Averted Catastrophe

On October 7, 2023, as the world focused on Hamas’s horrific breach of the Gaza border, an even greater, unseen threat loomed in the north. The IDF had intelligence that 3,000 of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan terrorists were prepared to invade from Lebanon, aiming to replicate the Gaza slaughter of 1,200 Israelis on a far more massive scale. This invasion would have been accompanied by thousands of precision-guided missiles and drones targeting Israel’s civilian populations. The scale of the threat was unprecedented, leveraging years of Iranian investment.

Unlike Gaza’s tactical footpaths, Hezbollah’s so-called “land of the tunnels”was an advanced, subterranean infrastructure.  Iran, with North Korean expertise since the 1980s, carved these freeways into solid bedrock, extending 200 kilometers to connect Lebanon’s  Bekaa Valley to Syria and Iraq. This underground land bridge was designed to transport advanced weapons, including mobile precision-guided missile launchers, hidden from Israeli and U.S. airstrikes. Hezbollah was the crown jewel of Iran’s “Ring of Fire” strategy, built since 1980 to encircle our small Jewish state with lethal terrorist proxies. The U.S. State Department estimates Iran spent $700 million annually equipping Hezbollah with missiles, rockets, and other terrorism support.

Along the roads of the Upper Galilee on October 7th, tens of thousands of cars were abandoned, left by reservists who had dropped everything to answer the call of duty.  Long convoys of Armored Personnel Carriers and tankers lined up, awaiting the order to move to the Northern border.

Events escalated dramatically. On October 11, the Israeli Air Force was airborne for a massive preemptive strike when President Biden intervened, persuading Israel to stand down from a Regional War with Iran, while sending the Gerald Ford Aircraft Carrier strike group into the Eastern Mediterranean with a simple, clear message to Iran: “Just don’t.” In the weeks that followed, IDF commando units conducted hundreds of secretive cross-border raids, targeting Hezbollah tunnels, headquarters, and rocket launchers, driving the Radwan terrorists away from the border.

This lesser-known story of October 7th from Israel’s Northern Border is that a second massacre of unimaginable proportions was repelled—not by a silent miracle, but by the loud, messy, and heroic mobilization of a people and the intervention of an ally who refused to let Israel fall.

The War of Attrition and Decisive Turning Point

What followed was an eighteen-month war of attrition. Between October 2023 and November 2024, Hezbollah fired over 12,400 projectiles into Israel. The IDF responded by neutralizing more than a 1,000 terror sites. The cost was high: 32 Israeli civilians and 87 security personnel killed; More than 96,000 Israelis displaced for over 500 days, with nearly 3,000 structures hit. In the ghost border town of Metula, over 60% of homes and buildings were damaged or destroyed.

The collapse of Hezbollah and the weakening of the “Ring of Fire” began in the fall of 2024. After the legendary ”Beeper Episode” and the assassination of Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah and much of his military leadership, his new replacement admitted to wildly underestimating Israeli capabilities. This decimation, coupled with the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and Israel’s dominating 12-day war with Iran in June 2025 culminating in the U.S. strike that destroyed much of Iran’s nuclear capability, fundamentally reshaped the Middle East.

Rebuilding and Resilience 

In the aftermath of October 7th, Livnot U’Lehibanot became the first organization to rebuild along the Gaza border with professionals and Diaspora volunteers. Following the November 27, 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah, Livnot was the first to be asked to rebuild in the North. Our daughter Jess and husband David joined our Livnot volunteer group in April.   Since 0ctober 7th,  Livnot U’Lehibanot  has led over 320 rebuilding projects in 35 communities that were damaged by Iran’s terrorist proxies along the Gaza and Lebanese borders, turning service and physical labor into spiritual restoration for Diaspora Jewish and Non-Jewish volunteers who wished to learn, build and be built in the land of Israel.  The dedication of Israeli and Diaspora volunteers is proof that Am Yisrael remains unbroken.

After we repaired Shalom’s home, Livnot’s guide Asher drove us to Metula, a village surrounded on three sides by Hezbollah territory. The government has reopened the town, yet less than half of the residents have resettled. We were grateful to find the famous Canada Ice Skating Center and our cousin’s former hotel still standing, but the scars of war are undeniable.

Gal, our foreman, shared the horrors and deep gratitude as he recounted his commando unit entering the enormous terror tunnels. They discovered armored trucks, tanks, mobile precision-guided missile launchers, and fully-equipped headquarters—all intended for the Radwan elite to cross Israel’s border on their way to Haifa and Tel Aviv. The near-catastrophic elimination of Israel was thwarted by the dedication of IDF soldiers, American support in the Mediterranean, and the volunteers who returned to the ruins to rebuild.

The Looming Deadline

Today, as we near the end of 2025, the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire calls for the Lebanese Armed Forces to disarm Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon by December 31st. Meanwhile, Hezbollah rebuilds in Northern Lebanon with some 40,000 fighters and 20,000 rockets, including several thousand capable of striking Tel Aviv. The upcoming deadline brings rising tensions, concerns of a Lebanese civil war, and the renewal of Iran’s proxy war with Israel.

The decimation of Hezbollah and Hamas, the weakening of the Iranian Regime, and the collapse of Iran’s underground terror transport system may have altered the balance of power, but the work is far from finished. Deterrence is not a static achievement; only the daily practice of vigilance,  strength, and pragmatism will lead to peace, coexistence, and prosperity for Israel and her neighbors in the Middle East. The memory of the invasion that almost succeeded on October 7th must inform the world’s resolve to see the disarmament deadline enforced.