{"id":289903,"date":"2024-06-22T05:05:28","date_gmt":"2024-06-22T05:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=289903"},"modified":"2024-06-23T07:31:43","modified_gmt":"2024-06-23T07:31:43","slug":"israel-unprepared-for-full-blown-war-with-hezbollah-senior-electricity-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=289903","title":{"rendered":"Israel unprepared for full-blown war with Hezbollah \u2014 senior electricity official"},"content":{"rendered":"

Times of Israel Staff \u2013 Times of Israel June 20, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Israel is not prepared for the damage its electricity infrastructure would sustain if a full-scale war were to break out with Hezbollah, the head of the company responsible for planning the country\u2019s electrical systems warned on Thursday, though he later cast that remark as \u201cirresponsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not in a good situation, and we are not prepared for a real war. We are living in a fantasy,\u201d said Shaul Goldstein, who leads Israel\u2019s Independent System Operator Ltd, known by its Hebrew initials NOGA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot promise electricity if there is a war in the north. After 72 hours without electricity, it will be impossible to live here. We are not prepared for a real war,\u201d said the NOGA CEO during an appearance at a conference in the southern city of Sderot after he was asked whether he could guarantee continuous power in an emergency scenario.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Nasrallah decides to neutralize Israel\u2019s power grid, he only needs to pick up the phone and call the head of Beirut\u2019s power grid, which is [largely] identical to Israel\u2019s,\u201d Goldstein claimed.<\/p>\n

After his comments began grabbing headlines, Goldstein sought to walk some of them back, telling the Kan public broadcaster: \u201cI made irresponsible remarks that I shouldn\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n

His warning came amid increasing concern that the situation on Israel\u2019s northern border could escalate to a full-fledged war between Israel and the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah. The Shiite militia is believed to possess some 150,000 rockets that it could use to target Israeli infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Goldstein\u2019s remarks drew condemnation from government officials as well as other leaders of the energy sector.<\/p>\n

Meir Shpilger, CEO of the Israel Electric Company, which implements NOGA\u2019s plans called Goldstein\u2019s words \u201cirresponsible [and] detached from reality,\u201d accusing him of unnecessarily sewing panic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe State of Israel will not be left in the dark. The odds of a power outage lasting days are very low,\u201d Energy Minister Eli Cohen tweeted in response.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe prepare for all scenarios,\u201d Cohen added. \u201cThe State of Israel has the ability to generate electricity from a large variety of sources. We have gas rigs, we have reserves of diesel fuel, we have huge reserves of coal and we also generate electricity from renewable energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur reserves of energy sources are dispersed in classified and protected locations. There are many other actions we have taken to ensure regular energy supply, which cannot be detailed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there will be an hours-long power outage in Israel, there will be a months-long power outage in Lebanon,\u201d Cohen warned.<\/p>\n

Even NOGA issued a statement distancing itself from its own CEO, saying Goldstein\u2019s assessment was not representative of the company.<\/p>\n

Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.<\/p>\n

So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in 10 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 15 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah has named 349 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 63 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, the exchanges of fire on the border with Lebanon have escalated, with Hezbollah firing hundreds of rockets into Israel, and the Israeli military killing Hezbollah operatives\u2014 including, recently, a senior commander.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a speech commemorating that slain commander, threatened<\/a> Israel on Wednesday with \u201ctotal war,\u201d adding that the Shiite terror group does not seek a complete escalation with Israel but will continue to act in support of Hamas.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo place\u201d in Israel would be spared from the group\u2019s weapons in case of a full-blown war, Nasrallah warned, saying Hezbollah will fight with \u201cno rules\u201d and \u201cno ceilings\u201d and adding: \u201cThe enemy knows well that we have prepared ourselves for the worst\u2026 and that no place\u2026 will be spared from our rockets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nasrallah\u2019s comments came one day after the IDF announced<\/a> that generals had approved battle plans for an offensive in Lebanon, as US special envoy Amos Hochstein traveled<\/a> to Jerusalem and Beirut in an effort to de-escalate the situation.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe cannot promise electricity if there is a war in the north. After 72 hours without electricity, it will be impossible to live here. We are not prepared for a real war\u201d — Shaul Goldstein, head of the company responsible for planning Israel\u2019s electrical systems<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":196144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-289903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-10-gaza-war","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=289903"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289925,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289903\/revisions\/289925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/196144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=289903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=289903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=289903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}