Hezbollah “was ready to launch 6,000 rockets”. A headquarters among the targets –

The Middle East is a powder keg. The pro-Iranian Lebanese Shiite party Hezbollah was ready to launch 6,000 rockets against Israel, a high-level source in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported, cited by the broadcaster «Channel 12». Based on intelligence information, Israel has thus launched a preemptive strike in southern Lebanon, destroying hundreds of Hezbollah rocket launchers aimed at the Jewish state. According to the IDF, the pro-Iranian Shiite group ultimately launched 210 rockets and about 20 drones. Hezbollah, for its part, announced that it had launched over 320 rockets against Israeli military sites, completing the first phase of retaliation for the death of high-ranking commander Fouad Shukr, killed in a raid in the southern suburbs of Beirut last July 30.

The pro-Iranian Shiite party had planned to strike the Giliot base near Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, where the Mossad headquarters and several units of the elite intelligence corps are located. The Jewish press reported this, citing security sources and explaining that Hezbollah’s plan was foiled thanks to a preventive strike by the Israeli forces, which destroyed hundreds of rocket launchers in southern Lebanon aimed at the central and northern areas of the Jewish state this morning. The war council met this morning in emergency and Ben Gurion airport was closed for a few hours. “We are observing Hezbollah’s preparations for attacks against Israeli territory,” the Israeli army wrote in a message in Arabic to residents of southern Lebanon.

“Anyone who is near the areas where Hezbollah operates must leave the area immediately to protect themselves and their families,” he urged. All flights departing from Tel Aviv have been postponed and incoming flights are being diverted to other destinations. “We are determined to do everything we can to protect our country, to bring the residents of the North safely back to their homes. And we will continue to follow a simple rule: whoever harms us, we harm them,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at an emergency cabinet meeting, which Israel destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rockets this morning.