From the perspective of Israel’s military leadership, the nation is never really not at war with any of its neighbors, and at best is just in-between major invasions of those nations.

So when top Israeli military brass like IAF chief Major General Amir Eshel talk about what they’ll target in the next Lebanon War, it is important to keep in mind that those officials envision such a conflict kicking off at literally any moment.

Maj. Gen. Eshel made clear today that Israel’s intention is to launch mass attack on residential areas and that the nation will inflict high civilian casualties while doing so.

When Israel starts talking about massive civilian tolls it’s time to take notice, as in the 2006 war on Lebanon they killed 1,191 Lebanese civilians and that figure was presented by officials at the time as extremely modest and a testament to Israeli “restraint.”

Eshel is now claiming “thousands” of Hezbollah bases in residential areas, and says the intention of the Israeli Air Force is to destroy every single one, civilian casualties be damned.

The idea that there are thousands of anything in Lebanon is more than a little far-fetched, with the whole country amounted to less than 5 million people in an area about half the size of New Jersey. Yet during the 2008 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israel was attacking random police stations on the grounds that literally every one was a “Hamas base,” and Hezbollah’s status as both a militia and a major political party means an awful lot of office space is likely to get classified as “dual use” the next time Israel starts bombing the nation.