Israel carried out an hour-long airstrike on 120 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces said. Israel has been bombing Lebanon for two weeks and has been conducting a ground operation in the south of the country for a week.
About 100 Israeli planes carried out a wave of massive airstrikes on Monday against 120 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon – said the Israeli armed forces.
Monday's airstrikes lasted an hour, the planes hit Hezbollah's missile and intelligence units, as well as the positions of the group's special forces, Radwan, the Israel Defense Forces said.
It added that over the past two weeks, Israel had struck more than 100 of the group's targets in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. The attacks were aimed at command centers, weapons warehouses and workshops producing weapons.
Israel-Lebanon borderPAP – Michał Czernek
Israeli attacks in Lebanon
Israel has been intensively bombing Lebanon for two weeks, and since Tuesday it has been conducting a ground operation in the south of the country, emphasizing that its target is Hezbollah terrorists. Powered by Iran the organization has been fighting Israel with varying intensity for decades, and since the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip a year ago, it has been shelling the north of the Jewish state, which is met with strong counterattacks.
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The airstrikes are concentrated in the south of Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley in the northeast, areas controlled by Hezbollah. Initially sporadic attacks on Beirut are now carried out almost daily, mainly affecting the southern suburb of the city, Dahije, considered a stronghold of Shiite organizations.
Destruction after Israeli attacks on the outskirts of Beirut, October 7PAP/EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
In one such attack, the following people were killed: Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah. Most of the group's leaders were also killed in Israeli airstrikes. The Israeli army reports that it has significantly weakened the military potential of this group armed by Iran.
Hezbollah continues to fire hundreds of rockets into northern Israel almost every day. About 130 missiles were fired on Monday. Some of them flew to Haifa, several dozen kilometers from the border.
Israel also conducts a ground operation in southern Lebanon. On Monday afternoon, new warnings were issued to civilians living in the area, urging them to evacuate from coastal areas where soldiers are expected to strike Hezbollah targets.
Monday marks the first anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack that started the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. Lebanese Hezbollah began shelling Israel the day after the attack, on October 8, 2023, to “show solidarity with the Palestinians.”
Israel says the Hezbollah-backed group was preparing for an attack modeled on Hamas' incursion into the south of the country. However, the operation codenamed “Conquest of Galilee” was to be on a larger scale than last year's attack, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed.
Main photo source: PAP/EPA/WAEL HAMZEH