A cafe in Tel Aviv. Photo: Anatoli Axelrod.

Israel faces a “very challenging” missile threat, a top IDF officer warned on Wednesday.

“In the next war in Gaza or on the northern front, Tel Aviv residents won’t be able to drink their coffee,” Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai — the head of the IDF Homefront Command — said at an Interior Ministry conference in Ashkelon.

“In 2019, there will be a more complex and challenging threat to Israel, along with the capabilities which we are familiar with,” Yadai noted. “There is another geostrategic reality which presents us with new challenges and threats.”

“The Middle East is organized differently,” he said. “There is a possibility of launching military campaigns on both the northern and the southern fronts, since we are aware of coordination attempts.”

Tel Aviv was targeted by Hamas and Islamic Jihad during the 2014 Gaza war, but the Iron Dome system protected Israel’s commercial capital from any significant damage.

However, Iran-backed Hezbollah — based in Lebanon — possesses a more formidable missile arsenal than its Palestinian counterparts in the Gaza Strip and would pose a major test to Israel’s multi-layered aerial defense network were it to fully unleash its firepower in a future conflict.