Mikati calls for ministerial emergency committee meeting following Israeli attack on southern Lebanon

The Israeli army announced that it had launched a preemptive attack, with the aim of removing threats to the Lebanese factions’ movement after observing their preparation to launch shells and missiles towards Israel.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that the Lebanese factions were planning to target mainly northern Israel and some targets in central Israel.

Sources from Lebanon said that Israeli warplanes launched more than 40 air strikes targeting a number of villages and towns in southern Lebanon, and the Israeli army confirmed that 100 warplanes participated in the attack.

While information indicated that the Lebanese factions were responding to the Israeli raids by launching intensive barrages of missiles, it became clear that the party was about to carry out an attack in response to the assassination of one of its most prominent leaders, Fouad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli air raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut at the end of last month.

The Lebanese factions said in successive statements that the attack on Israel began in response to Shukr’s assassination with an air strike on a qualitative Israeli military target.

The Lebanese factions announced that it launched 320 missiles in the first phase of the attack to facilitate the passage of the offensive drones towards their target, targeting 11 Israeli sites and barracks, stressing that its drones passed as planned.

Later, the Lebanese factions denied in a statement the Israeli allegations of thwarting his military operations, stressing that they contradict the facts on the ground.

The Lebanese factions confirmed that “all the offensive marches crossed towards the desired target, and thus our military operation for today has been completed and accomplished.”

The Lebanese factions have not yet mentioned the target of the operation, but the Ynet website reported that “among the targets of the Lebanese factions in the attack was the Galileot area, where the Mossad headquarters and Base 8200 are located.”

The Lebanese factions added, “The enemy’s claims about preemptive action and its disruption of the resistance’s attack are empty claims and contradict the facts on the ground.”