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by: Kate Norman
Netanyahu told the people of Lebanon: “Israel’s war is not with you. It’s with Lebanon” (illustrative).
Tuesday, 24 September 2024 | Israel struck more than 1,300 Hezbollah terrorist targets throughout Lebanon on Monday, according to the Israeli military spokesperson—and those strikes broke down what the Iran-backed terrorist group has been working for 20 years to build, the defense minister stated.
“In the past day, we are crushing what was built by Hezbollah for 20 years,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated yesterday, as quoted by the Times of Israel. Gallant added that “entire units” of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force “were taken out of service, and tens of thousands of rockets were destroyed.”
Gallant estimated that some tens of thousands of Hezbollah’s rockets were destroyed, the Jerusalem Post reported. The terrorist group, which is armed, funded, backed and ordered by Iran, was estimated before the war to have an arsenal of 150,000 rockets.
The targets included cruise missiles with a range of 200 kilometers (124 mi.), rockets with a warhead of about 1,000 kilograms (441 lbs.), medium-range rockets and short-range rockets, and an unnamed aircraft, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson.
“These are Hezbollah’s strategic weapons capabilities which it placed in the heart of the villages, in civilian homes and from there it intended to launch them and harm the citizens of the State of Israel,” IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari said in a statement posted on the military’s website.
Hagari showed footage of some of the targets, which included the homes of Lebanese families—where Hezbollah was hiding missiles and launching systems.
“This is an immediate and real threat to the citizens of the State of Israel, and we have an obligation to remove it,” Hagari said.
While Hezbollah targets Israeli civilians and in the process deliberately puts Lebanese civilians in harm’s way, Israel goes out of its way to avoid civilian casualties in Lebanon.
The IDF made more than 80,000 phone calls on Monday, warning Lebanese civilians to evacuate the areas of impending strikes, the head of a Lebanese telecom company told Reuters. The IDF also sent out text messages warning civilians to evacuate areas where Hezbollah had stored weapons, the Jerusalem Post reported, and also overtook control of Lebanese radio broadcasts to issue more evacuation warnings.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement yesterday directed to the people of Lebanon.
“Israel’s war is not with you,” the prime minister stated. “It’s with Hezbollah.”
“For too long, Hezbollah has been using you as human shields,” Netanyahu continued. “It placed rockets in your living rooms and missiles in your garage. Those rockets and missiles are aimed directly at our cities, directly at our citizens.”
Israel must take out these weapons to defend its civilians, Netanyahu stated.
In a separate statement, Netanyahu noted Israel’s switch from defense to offense in its fighting with Hezbollah, which began on October 8, 2023—when Hezbollah began near-daily cross-border attacks just one day after Hamas’s deadly massacre in Israel on October 7.
“We are not waiting for the threat, we are pre-empting it—everywhere, in every sector, constantly,” Netanyahu stated yesterday after meeting with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and other military leaders.
The IDF is eliminating senior figures, terrorists and missiles, Netanyahu said.
“I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of forces in the north—this is exactly what we are doing,” the prime minister added. “We are destroying thousands of missiles and rockets that are directed at Israel’s cities and citizens.”
Hezbollah has responded with its own strikes, firing some 25 rockets on Monday toward the Upper Galilee and Haifa, the Times of Israel reported. The barrage toward Haifa sent more than one million people running for bomb shelters, the IDF announced.
A Hezbollah rocket hit a house in the Lower Galilee region on Monday, reportedly sparking a fire but causing no injuries.
There were several reported incidents of Israeli civilians being wounded by rocket shrapnel, according to Israeli media reports.
Most of the Hezbollah rockets, however, reportedly were intercepted by Israeli air defenses.
Posted on September 25, 2024
Source: (Bridges for Peace, September 24, 2024)
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