The Israeli government’s approach to avoiding a full-scale war with Hezbollah troops near the northern border is encapsulated in a 68-year-old training manual known as “The Rifle Department.”
First issued in 1956 and hastily reprinted after the mass mobilization following the Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, the manual imparts traditional techniques of static defense to soldiers.
Lt. Col. Dotan Razili, a home front brigade commander in the north, highlighted the manual’s focus on old methods of defense.
“The IDF usually is an attacking force. We take the initiative,” he told reporters in Hanita, situated along the northern border that were evacuated in the days following the Oct. 7 attack.
“We had to teach units how to start defending,” he said, a battered looking copy of the manual in his hand, Reuters reported.
Being one of the Israeli army’s inaugural training manuals, this book imparts classic infantry techniques to soldiers and junior officers accustomed to modern high-tech warfare.
It covers skills such as digging foxholes capable of serving as positions for extended periods.
Despite intense battles in the southern Gaza Strip, the forces in the northern region find themselves in a lower-intensity cross-border standoff with Hezbollah fighters.
In this prolonged situation, both sides have exchanged fire without escalating to full-scale war.
Written by B.C. Begley
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B.C. Begley 