IDF Chief Approves Battle Plans Amid Ongoing Back-and-forth Strikes with Hezbollah

September 20, 2024

by: Kate Norman

Friday, 20 September 2024 | The chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) yesterday approved battle plans for Israel’s northern front with Hezbollah, the military announced, amid ongoing back-and-forth strikes between the Israeli military and the Lebanon-based terrorist group.

Early yesterday, two IDF soldiers were killed in a heavy barrage of Hezbollah missile and drone attacks on northern Israeli communities. Nine soldiers were also wounded in the attacks.

Israel responded by launching dozens of strikes across Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon in what was described as some of the most intense attacks since October 8, when the Iranian terror proxy joined its fellow Iranian terror proxy, Hamas, in its war against Israel with near daily bombardments.

According to the IDF, the series of strikes, which started yesterday afternoon and continued in waves over the next hours, destroyed more than 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers—translating to around 1,000 launch barrels—in southern Lebanon that were primed for immediate attacks on Israel.

The northern front is heating up in the wake of the stunning operation in which the IDF and Mossad allegedly rigged some 3,000 pagers of Hezbollah operatives and allies to explode across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing 12 people and injuring nearly 3,000. The next day, a similar event occurred when handheld radios, again used by Hezbollah operatives, killed another 25 people and injured 450 more, the Times of Israel reported, citing Lebanese health officials.

Ynetnews investigative journalist Ronen Bergman, however, reported that Hezbollah’s casualty count is likely higher than the official numbers provided, with an estimation that “there are many dozens of dead, if not more.” Bergman noted that Israeli officials believe the pager explosions significantly damaged Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, though he did not cite his source.

In response to the alleged Israeli attack, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah stated in a televised address Thursday that the Iran-backed terrorist group underwent a “major and unprecedented blow” but that “the Israeli effort has largely been thwarted.” Nasrallah blamed Israel as well as the United States and NATO for the attack, vowing that the terrorist group “will come out stronger.”

Undermining the strength of Nasrallah’s speech, however, was the presence of Israeli jets flying overhead in Beirut, firing off flares.

Israel’s Security Cabinet earlier this week updated its official objectives for the war that started on October 7 when Hamas fighters executed a brutal massacre in Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage. Israel’s initial objectives were to rescue the hostages, wipe out Hamas and demilitarize Gaze, eliminating it as a threat to Israel.

The new objective involves returning Israel’s northern civilians to their homes, as some 60,000 residents of northern Israel have been evacuated from their homes near the border with Lebanon. They have been displaced since October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began a series of near-daily strikes against northern cities.

“We are very determined to create the security conditions that will return the residents to their homes, to the communities, with a high level of security, and we are ready to do all that is required to bring about these things,” IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said in a statement released Wednesday by the military.

Halevi reiterated Israel’s goal of returning the hostages and dismantling Hamas.

“We still have many capabilities that we have not yet activated,” Halevi added. “We saw some of these things here, and it seems to me that the readiness is good and we are preparing these plans going forward.”

Indeed it appears that Israel’s focus is shifting north from the operation in Gaza.

“The center of gravity is moving north,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant addressed a group at the Ramat David Airbase Wednesday, as quoted by the Times of Israel. “We are diverting forces, resources, and energy toward the north.”

“I believe that we are at the onset of a new phase in this war,” Gallant added, “and we need to adapt.”

Diplomats from Washington and other Western allies have been scrambling to find a diplomatic solution to the back-and-forth strikes between Hezbollah and Israel and prevent a full-blown war.

But their efforts appear to be falling short as the back-and-forth strikes continue to escalate. The IDF began moving more troops to the border with Lebanon on Wednesday, an IDF spokesperson told the Times of Israel.

Some 26 Israeli civilians and 20 IDF soldiers have died in northern Israel from the Hezbollah rockets and missiles since October 8, the Times of Israel reported, while Hezbollah has claimed the loss of more than 450 members during that same period.

Posted on September 20, 2024

Source: (Bridges for Peace, September 20, 2024)

Photo Credit: Khamenei.ir/wikimedia.org

Photo License: Wikimedia