Chabad of Metula was target of planned Oct. 7-style Hezbollah invasion

Rabbi Moshe Sasonkin told Ynet that IDF officials informed him that Hezbollah had collected information about him, including where he lived and even details about his car. 

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

An IDF operation in southern Lebanon uncovered documents outlining Hezbollah’s plans to invade northern Israel, and one of the targets was the Chabad House in Metula, Ynet reported.

Rabbi Moshe Sasonkin told the outlet that IDF officials informed him that Hezbollah had collected information about him, including where he lived and even details about his car.

The plans to invade northern Israel were revealed when the IDF targeted a Hezbollah bunker in the village of Kfar Kila.

In addition to discovering stockpiles of weapons, they found documents describing in detail plans to invade Metula and other communities in northern Israel.

In September, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari confirmed that the IDF had eliminated Radwan Force Commander Ibrahim Aqil, who had plans to capture the Galilee.

Rabbi Sasonkin told the publication Kfar Chabad: “A senior official revealed to me that after IDF forces entered the village of Kila, they found there, among other things, a document that contained very detailed plans for a massacre similar to October 7, which only by the grace of God did not come to fruition.”

“Among the intelligence information found in the underground bunkers of Hezbollah terrorists, there was a list of the most important people in Metula, and our house also ‘deserved’ to be marked as a terrorist target,” he said. “This is a very detailed document, which even accurately describes our vehicle.”

Rabbi Sasonkin expressed hope that Israeli evacuees could return to their homes in the north, but he also described the scale to which Hezbollah was embedded, even in ordinary Lebanese homes, right across the border from Israel.

“In the village of Kila and in many other Shiite villages and settlements in the vicinity, almost every house, even if it seems like the residence of an ‘innocent’ family, contained a cache of weapons, including RPG missiles and other deadly weapons,” he said.

“There is no logical explanation why they did not ultimately carry out the diabolical plant. It was prepared in detail. The only explanation is a great miracle that happened to us and the mercy of God,” he added.