Israel attacked “more than 1,600 Hezbollah targets” in Lebanon, preparing “the next phases of the fight.” According to Lebanese sources, 492 people were killed and 1,645 people were injured.
Israel’s army says it has again hit Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Tuesday night. The attacks on “dozens of Hezbollah targets” took place in southern Lebanon, the armed forces said.
A Hezbollah commander is believed to have been killed in one of the Israeli air strikes. Sources from the security apparatus in Lebanon tell the Reuters news agency that commander Ibrahim Qubaisi is believed to have been killed. There is no official confirmation of this yet.
More than 50 missiles were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel. Hezbollah, which is supported by Israel’s arch-enemy Iran, said it had attacked Israel at least six times since early this morning with Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 rockets.
Among other things, Hezbollah attacked the Israeli military airport Megiddo west of Afoula and again the military base Ramat David near the coastal city of Haifa. It was not initially known whether there were any casualties or damage.
Israel attacks 1,600 targets
The Israeli army said on Tuesday that some of the missiles were intercepted by missile defense and the rest landed in open areas. There were no reports of injuries. Several buildings were damaged. The fire service was working to extinguish fires caused by the attacks.
On Monday, the Israeli army said it had attacked more than 1,600 targets in an attempt to destroy military targets belonging to the Shiite militia supported by Iran. A “large number” of Hezbollah members were killed in the attack, the army said. According to the Lebanese government, at least 492 people were killed in the Israeli attacks, including 35 children. 1,645 people were injured. This is the highest number of casualties in southern Lebanon since the warlike conflict between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah began almost a year ago.
Israel calls military action “Arrows of the North”
The Israeli army gave the massive military operation the code name “Arrows of the North”. The military said that this was announced by the Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi. Israel has repeatedly given such code names to offensives against its enemies, for example in the case of the wars against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It can be interpreted as an indication that the operation in Lebanon will continue.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a message directly to the Lebanese people: “Israel is not waging war against you, but against Hezbollah,” he said. “Hezbollah has been using you as human shields for far too long.” In order to defend Israel against Hezbollah attacks, the militia’s weapons must be rendered harmless, Netanyahu argued.
Traffic jam. Many people are fleeing southern Lebanon. APA / AFP / Ibrahim Amro
Israel prepares for counterattacks
According to the Israeli Homeland Security, citizens of Israel must prepare for possible Hezbollah counterattacks across the country. A Homeland Security spokesman told the news site “ynet” that the country’s residents should be prepared to seek shelter in the event of rocket attacks. Special instructions continue to apply in the area north of the port city of Haifa. There are no schools there either. The beaches are closed there. If sirens sound in the greater Tel Aviv area, people would have one and a half minutes to seek shelter in the event of attacks from Lebanon, the Homeland Security spokesman said.
Lebanese security sources said that Israel’s army had again attacked in the south and east of the country. Israel said that artillery and tanks had also hit other “terrorist targets” near the border towns of Ayta al-Shab and Ramyah, two Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon.
Fadi rocket: range up to 100 kilometers
Hezbollah first mentioned the use of Fadi rockets on Sunday. It also presented the rockets in a video. They are named after a militia engineer who died in the conflict with Israel in 1987. According to the information in the video, the six-meter-long projectiles have a range of 70 to 100 kilometers and can carry warheads weighing around 80 to 170 kilograms. It is said to be a variant of the Khaibar-1 rocket developed by Syria, which Hezbollah first used in 2006.
The conflict recently escalated after hundreds of the militia’s pagers and walkie-talkies exploded on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week and after some of its highest-ranking commanders were killed. Hezbollah blames Israel for the explosions and threatened a “new phase of reckoning.”
Exploding devices: 16 commanders killed
Although Israel did not comment on the authorship of the explosions, which killed 39 people and injured thousands more, it claimed responsibility for killing Hezbollah commanders Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Mahmoud Wahbi. According to Hezbollah, a total of 16 of its commanders were killed in the attack. According to Israeli sources, they were planning an attack on Israel similar to the one carried out by the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas on Israel on October 7 last year.
Since the unprecedented attack by the terrorist organization Hamas almost a year ago and the resulting war in the Gaza Strip, regional tensions have increased, for example due to aggression by the so-called “Axis of Resistance” proclaimed by Iran against Israel. In addition to Hezbollah, this includes other groups from the Middle East supported by Iran, such as Hamas, several Shiite groups in Iraq and the Houthi militia in Yemen.
Since October 8, northern Israel has been under constant fire from Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas. Israel has responded to the attacks with counterattacks in Lebanon. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have since become internally displaced. Israel has repeatedly called for the heavily armed Shiite militia, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Germany and the USA, among others, to withdraw from the Lebanese-Israeli border through international mediators. Hezbollah symbols are banned in Austria. (APA/dpa/AFP)
