Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched precision airstrikes against Hezbollah terrorist targets in southern Lebanon over the weekend in response to what appears to be a continued gradual escalation of fighting along Israel’s northern border.
Israel’s strikes against Hezbollah thus far have been purely defensive in nature and are only in response to attacks launched by the Iranian-backed terrorist group.
“Among the targets struck were military infrastructure used by Hezbollah to direct its terrorist activity,” IDF said in a statement. “In addition, IDF soldiers struck the terrorist cell that opened fire toward the area of Dovev in which a number of civilians were injured. Furthermore, a short while ago, a terrorist cell launched a number of mortar shells toward northern Israel. The IDF struck the cell, as well as an additional terrorist cell in the area of Yarin in southern Lebanon.”
IDF continued to hit Hezbollah targets with artillery fire throughout the day in response to numerous mortars that the terror group fired at Israel.
מטוסי קרב של צה"ל תקפו מספר מטרות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בשטח לבנון, בתגובה לירי מוקדם יותר היום. בין המטרות שהותקפו תשתיות צבאיות בהן פעלו מחבלי ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה להכוונת טרור.
כוחות צה"ל תקפו בשטח לבנון את חוליית השיגור שביצעה את הירי לעבר מרחב דובב בו נפגעו מספר אזרחים>> pic.twitter.com/pF6vgj64fM
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 12, 2023
Israel has evacuated tens of thousands of civilians from more than two dozen towns along its northern border in anticipation that Hezbollah could ramp up attacks and open a second front against Israel as it hunts down Hamas terrorists inside Gaza who were responsible for the October 7 massacre.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Hezbollah over the weekend that it would be making a “grave mistake” by escalating attacks against Israel that will drag all of Lebanon into a war.
“What we are doing in Gaza we know how to do in Beirut,” Gallant said. “Our pilots are sitting in the cockpit, the noses of the planes are pointing north. We have enough to do in the south, but the Air Force is facing north and its power is very great. We haven’t even used 10% of the IAF’s power in Gaza.”
The U.S. has deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups in the eastern Mediterranean to make Hezbollah think long and hard about the repercussions it faces if it launches an all-out assault against Israel.
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Gallant’s remarks come as many IDF officials have started to believe that war against Hezbollah is inevitable.
Former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Fox News in 2021 that Hezbollah has hundreds of thousands of rockets, a significantly larger quantity than the number possessed by Hamas, and that Israel has already pre-sighted numerous targets throughout Lebanon where the rockets are located.
EXCLUSIVE: Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz shows Fox News a classified target map, revealing Hezbollah missiles amid civilian infrastructure https://t.co/fPisnRjtjs pic.twitter.com/fm4nOQ5yLm
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) March 4, 2021
Last week, Israeli intelligence officials with the Mossad revealed that they had foiled terrorist attacks that Hezbollah was planning against Jews in Brazil, which has seen a 961% surge in anti-Semitic incidents since the October 7 attack.