The Iran-aligned Hezbollah group on Tuesday revealed sensitive images of Israeli military and civilian infrastructure, sending a strong deterrence signal to the Netanyahu government weighing the stakes of an all-out war.

The Lebanon-based group released the 10-minute footage, captured with a drone, just a few hours after US Envoy Amos Hochstein concluded his visit to Beirut as part of a Middle East trip aimed at preventing an Israel-Hezbollah war.

Al Jazeera sources claimed the footage is Hezbollah's message to the US envoy and the Israelis amid Tel Aviv's repeated threats of widening the conflict in Gaza.

The release is part of the psychological warfare, Hezbollah has been conducting over the past few weeks. While it shows the Shia group is also weary of an Israeli invasion of Lebanon, its gradually unveiled capabilities do have the potential to deter Israelis from launching an all-out war.

Hezbollah officials have said time and time again: "We are not interested in a wider conflict, we opened up a front to help our ally Hamas, to help Gaza, the Palestinian people. But if you do launch a war, we are prepared for this."

If Tuesday's footage unveiling was truly done with the help of a drone capable of flying virtually undetected over many areas of northern Israel, including the port in Haifa, it would worry Israeli military planners. 

The publicising of footages of several sensitive military targets like bases, military complexes, and iron dome batteries, is surely something that can force the Israeli military to re-evaluate how exactly their air defence alarms go off.

Source: Al Jazeera, Times of Israel