The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released photos and video on Monday that showed how Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists hide missiles, rockets, and drones inside people’s homes in southern Lebanon and launch them from inside.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that Hezbollah has been loading up homes and civilian infrastructure throughout the area for 20 years. Terrorists create designated openings in the outer walls of the buildings to allow the projectiles to be fired from the inside.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that many Shiite Muslims in the area have a special “Rocket Launcher Room” and are “paid monthly rent by Hezbollah to host this launcher and be prepared to shoot rockets at Israel communities on demand.”
The IDF explains how Hezbollah has turned homes into missile and rocket launch pads for the terrorist group. pic.twitter.com/eM4DsP6Kh6
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 23, 2024
The IDF also released images showing a large missile stored inside a home that was mounted on top of a hydraulic system in the attic of a home in the village of Houmine al-Tahta.
“It is ready to launch from an opening in the roof. Under the attic, on the first floor, a Lebanese family lives, serving as a human shield,” said Hagari. “This is an immediate and real threat to Israeli civilians, and we have an obligation to remove it.”
Images released by the IDF show how Hezbollah stores munitions inside civilians homes.
According to the military, the long-range missile was on a hydraulic system in the attic of a home in the southern Lebanon village of Houmine al-Tahta.
“It is ready to launch from an opening… pic.twitter.com/GeZnaryK3Z
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 23, 2024
The IDF significantly escalated their strikes against Hezbollah on Monday, striking more than 1,300 targets.
More than 490 people, estimated to be mostly terrorists, were killed in the airstrikes on Monday with more than 1,600 sustaining injuries, according to the latest statistics released by the Lebanese government.
The strikes destroyed thousands of cruise missiles, heavy rockets, medium-range rockets, short-range rockets, and suicide drones.
The Israeli military published an illustration of the Hezbollah arms targeted in airstrikes. pic.twitter.com/rHZ6xuaqNv
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) September 23, 2024
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that in the last day, the IDF has “crush[ed] what Hezbollah has built over twenty years.”
“[Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan] Nasrallah remains isolated at the top, entire units in the Radwan force have been taken out of action, and tens of thousands of rockets have been destroyed,” he added.
A senior Israeli official told a local news station: “What Hezbollah hasn’t understood through force, it will understand through more force.”
Israel wounded thousands of Hezbollah fighters last week by detonating pagers on Tuesday and detonating walkie talkies on Wednesday that it secretly made and sold to the terrorist group — devices that it laced with explosives. Hundreds of terrorists remain in critical condition and dozens more were killed.
On Friday, the IDF killed the entire senior command of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in an airstrike in a southern Beirut neighborhood, including Ibrahim Aqil, the Head of Hezbollah’s Operations Unit and the Commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces, who was also in charge of Hezbollah’s “Conquer the Galilee” attack plan.
The IDF followed up the elimination of the Radwan force’s senior command with an intense wave of airstrikes on Saturday, hitting nearly 300 targets “including thousands of launcher barrels, alongside additional terrorist infrastructure in multiple areas in southern Lebanon.”