By GAVIN RABINOWITZ
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 15, 2006; 4:29 AM

JERUSALEM -- Despite its desperate 11th-hour push, the mighty Israeli military fought to a virtual stalemate against a small group of Hezbollah guerillas as a cease-fire took effect.

But it wasn't quite the David vs. Goliath conflict it seemed on the surface, analysts and Israeli officials said. As troops moved in, they encountered a highly trained, deeply motivated foe, armed with sophisticated weapons and tactics and a home-turf advantage.

Israel tried to counter this with awesome firepower, helicopter-borne commando raids and airstrikes deep into Lebanon aimed at killing Hezbollah leaders and cutting off their flow of arms.

As Israel took on Hezbollah again, six years after it ended its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, it found an opponent vastly better prepared and spoiling for a fight.

"Hezbollah have been preparing for exactly this battle for six years," said Israeli counterterrorism expert Boaz Ganor.

During that time, the Shiite militia molded southern Lebanon into an ideal battleground from which to fight a guerrilla war.

A complex series of bunkers and tunnels were dug out of rocky hills and superbly camouflaged. A vast arsenal of rockets were hidden from sight, often in village houses and caves _ protected by a code of silence among local residents who view Hezbollah as the defenders of Lebanon.

After an initial period when Israel tried to blast Hezbollah's rocket launchers from the air, ground forces moved in to find and destroy the well-hidden launchers.

To the consternation of the Israelis, they would be hit time and again in villages and towns they had already captured, as Hezbollah squads appeared like phantoms from hidden bunkers _ many of them stocked with enough food and ammunition to last weeks.

"They are shooting at us," said Idan Swissa, 20, a tank gunner on a rest from the battles. "You look for it, but you don't know where it is coming from."

"Their idea was once we come in, they would not stand in front of us and exchange fire from close range, but would try to disperse and hide out and wait for opportunities, and that is what they are doing," said Yossi Kuperwasser, who retired this summer as the head of military intelligence's research department.

It wasn't just their use of classic guerrilla tactics. Hezbollah was also superbly armed, mainly by Iran and Syria.

"Hezbollah is unique in the world as a terror organization in that it has no problem in getting state-of-the-art technology, because it has two states behind it," said Ganor.

Much of this weaponry was supplied when Syria sent aid to Iran after the 2003 earthquake in the city of Bam. Nineteen planeloads and dozens of trucks returned to Syria filled with arms, which were then passed on to Hezbollah, said Kuperwasser.

And Israel believes Hezbollah has received intensive training from Iran. "All this training is conducted under the supervision of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards," said Kuperwasser, adding that Tehran has forces based in Lebanon and brings Hezbollah fighters to Iran for specialized training.

Last week, the army displayed captured weapons and equipment _ including anti-tank rockets, artillery, mortars, machine guns, rifles, advanced night vision equipment, communication gear and bulletproof vests.

But the weapons that proved particularly effective for Hezbollah were anti-tank rockets, from basic RPGs and Sagger missiles to advanced Russian-made Fagot and Kornet systems and the European Milan missile.

Israeli tanks proved especially vulnerable as they accompanied the slow grind of the ground forces moving through southern Lebanon, clearing villages and searching houses. Hezbollah cells hit dozens of tanks, maximizing the damage with an intimate knowledge of Israeli armor.

They also used their missiles to devastating effect against infantry searching houses, in one instance bringing a house down on Israeli soldiers and killing nine.

However, it has not always been about high-tech arsenals.

Israel, the only country in the world with an active anti-ballistic system on line, was left helpless as Hezbollah fired thousands of World War II-era Katyusha rockets into Israel.

And an array of Hezbollah booby traps, fitted with pressure pads, electronic sensors and remote control detonators, littered the roads of southern Lebanon. Israeli countered them with armored bulldozers, carving out dozens of miles of new roads, allowing forces to bypass the existing ones.

While Israel's standing army and special forces spearheaded the assault, the bulk of the 30,000 troops in Lebanon were reservists, many of them nearing middle age, unfit and with little recent training.

Israel has traditionally relied on its reserves to boost its forces in emergencies. The reserve system allows Israel a large army, but without the cost of thousands of professional soldiers.

The system has proved successful in five wars, but this time there were concerns after the army cut back on training due to budget cuts. Still, military officials said they fought well, using combat experience to make up for physical shortcomings.

Yet despite the blows and the slow pace of their advance, most military analysts gave the Israeli army high marks for its performance in Lebanon.

The army said it killed more than 530 guerillas since the start of fighting July 12. However, Hezbollah has acknowledged only 68 dead. Israel lost 118 troops.

"I don't know of any army in the world who could just roll over Hezbollah in a matter of weeks," said Robin Hughes, bureau chief of Jane's Defence Weekly, adding that Israel faced problems similar to those of coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The army has used its technical superiority to good effect. Unmanned drones hover over the battle fields, giving commanders back in Israel real-time information.

TV footage showed a drone operator spotting a Hezbollah force approaching an infantry position apparently unseen. He called in an Apache gunship that rocketed the guerillas, ending the threat.

Israel's vaunted air force, with its squadrons of F-16 and F-15 warplanes, have pounded targets, dropping laser-guided smart bombs on Hezbollah command bunkers and trucks transporting ammunition from Syria.

The army has also shown an ability to learn on the move, changing its tactics from the first days of fighting, when a daylight frontal assault on the village of Maroun al-Ras earned the army several casualties with very little gained.

To minimize the exposure of the tanks, the army has increased its use of infantry and commandos, taking on Hezbollah gunmen at close quarters in hilly terrain. Combat engineers were sent in to build sand berms to protect tank positions.

The Israeli troops operated mostly at night, using their superior night-vision equipment to neutralize Hezbollah's advantages.

"Given that Hezbollah has decided on the time, place and type of battle, Israel is doing very well," Ganor said before the cease-fire went into effect Monday.