By Luke Baker JERUSALEM, July 16 (Reuters) - Five days of fighting have given Israel pause to reevaluate the strength of one of its most hardened enemies -- Hizbollah.
Since Wednesday, the Lebanese guerrilla group has killed 12 Israeli troops, captured two others, rained missiles down on northern Israel, killing at least 12 civilians, and badly damaged a navy ship, sending it back to port.
Hizbollah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has appeared on television threatening all-out war and pledging to target major Israeli infrastructure such as petrochemicals plants.
Just as Lebanon's economy has been shattered by Israel's aerial bombardment and coastal siege in recent days, Israel's stock market has been hit by one of the worst Middle East crises in decades, falling 11 percent in three sessions.
"The idea that Hizbollah is some sort of rag-tag militia with AK-47s and a few RPGs is simply ridiculous," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said on Sunday.
"What we saw this morning in Haifa demonstrates that it is a formidable military organisation," he said, speaking shortly after Hizbollah hit Israel's third-largest city with 20 missiles, killing eight people and wounding dozens.
Israel has made very clear that it wants to use its offensive to remove the threat of a well-armed Hizbollah from its border, as well as to recover its abducted soldiers.
A heightened state of alert has now been imposed across northern Israel, including the commercial capital Tel Aviv, as authorities realise the range of Hizbollah's vast rocket arsenal may be much further than previously thought.
Thousands of residents have begun fleeing northern Israel and those who are staying behind are sleeping in bomb shelters.
For Hizbollah, a Shi'ite Muslim group originally founded to oppose Israel's invasion of Lebanon 24 years ago, it marks a very hot return to the world stage after several years of relative quiet in its battle with Israel.
Israel having second thoughts? Oh never mind, it's from Reuters.