IDF strikes Hezbollah targets in Lebanon amidst major increase in rocket attacks
The IDF has launched a major wave of targeted airstrikes on Hezbollah military infrastructure embedded across southern Lebanon over recent days, amidst a major increase in Hezbollah rocket fire into Israel. The dramatic escalation follows widespread reports that Hezbollah is in disarray in the aftermath of an airstrike on Friday against its most senior commanders in Beirut and the high-profile targeting of its communications networks last week.
Hundreds of Hezbollah targets were struck over the weekend by the IDF, which claimed to have destroyed around 1,000 rocket launcher tubes in the operation and foiled a major Hezbollah attack. More than 800 IDF airstrikes have taken place today against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa region.
Throughout Monday, Israel has issued warnings to Lebanese civilians situated within buildings containing Hezbollah weapons that they must urgently leave the area, as the IDF expands its operations to strikes against known Hezbollah arms depots within civilian areas. Lebanon’s state-owned telecoms company Ogero has said that 80,000+ warnings were issued by Israel to Lebanese civilians via its network, and many text messages have also been distributed. Lebanese radio stations were also reported to be issuing warnings from Israel.
Secondary explosions have been witnessed following a number of Israeli airstrikes on targeted buildings and civilian homes, which indicates the presence of weapons stored there by Hezbollah. IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that the IDF was striking “infrastructure that Hezbollah built up for years”, and that “every home” hit by Israel today has been used by Hezbollah to store weapons. He said: “The sights that are now seen in southern Lebanon are Hezbollah’s weapons exploding inside houses. Every home we struck, there are rockets, drones, missiles, which were intended to kill Israeli civilians”. Hagari added: “Hezbollah stores strategic weapons…in civilian buildings, and uses the population as a human shield and knowingly puts it in danger”.
CFI News: Executive Director James Gurd departs CFI after 14 years
CFI’s Executive Director James Gurd is departing the organisation after 14 years of loyal service, including eight years as Executive Director.
James has made an outstanding contribution to the organisation and played a pivotal role in the UK-Israel relationship which reached a historic high-water mark under the Conservative Government.
During James’ tenure as Executive Director, CFI successfully campaigned for the UK’s proscription of Hamas and Hezbollah as terror groups, played a central role in ensuring the UK’s resolute support for Israel in the wake of 7th October, and CFI’s Annual Business Lunch emerged as one of the largest events in the UK’s annual political calendar.
He has led over 40 important delegations to Israel for hundreds of Conservative parliamentarians.
James is highly respected in Westminster, and he will be greatly missed by all of us at CFI as well as the wider Conservative Party.
We would like to thank James for his steadfast service and wish him every success for the future.
Hilda Worth
Chair Conservative Friends of Israel
Hezbollah rocket fire intensifies
Hezbollah has launched its deepest attacks into Israel since 8th October with some rockets reaching 50km inside Israel in the Jezreel Valley area – all successfully intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system – and rocket sirens triggered in northern West Bank settlements. The expanded range of the rocket attacks put roughly two million Israelis — a fifth of the population — within range of Hezbollah’s munitions.
The IDF has revealed that it thwarted the launching of a Russian-made DR-3 cruise missile from a civilian home in southern Lebanon, which has range of 200km and carried 300kg of explosives.
Much of Hezbollah’s rocket fire has occurred in large barrages with 85 fired on Sunday morning, 100 on Saturday and at least 35 today.
Rockets have struck a number of civilian buildings in Israel, including Moreshet and Haifa’s Kiryat Bialik suburb – where large damage was documented. A 17-year-old was killed in a traffic accident amidst rocket sirens, and another four people in the car were injured. A number of other Israelis have been treated for injuries and stories have emerged of families narrowly surviving as a result of reaching protected safe rooms and rocket shelters moments before rockets struck their properties.
The IDF Home Front Command has been periodically issuing restrictions on public activities in northern Israel amid Hezbollah’s rocket barrages. Schools have been closed across much of the northern region and gatherings restricted to 10 people outdoors and 100 indoors. Workplaces may remain open provided adequate shelter is available for workers. Hospitals have been ordered to move patients to protected areas – with a number of them now operating from specially-constructed fortified underground facilities – and elective procedures have been cancelled.
Hezbollah’s deputy chief Naim Qassem has said that the group is in an “open-ended battle of reckoning” and “ready to face all military possibilities”. He vowed that the terror group would continue to support Gaza “no matter how long it takes, until the war in Gaza ends” and threatened that “the residents of the north [of Israel] will not return; more residents will have to leave their homes”.
The Iran-backed terror group has now launched more than 8,800 rockets and many drones and anti-tank missiles at Israel since 8th October, killing 48 Israelis and wounding more than 300. Over 60,000 Israelis remain evacuated from the north and their safe return is now an official strategic goal in the war. Hezbollah rocket fire had damaged hundreds of buildings and caused significant forest fires, with 190,000,000 sq metres burned. Iran-backed groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen continue to fire their own rockets and long-range drones and missiles at Israel.
Hezbollah has officially announced 502 of its fighters and leaders have been killed by Israel during skirmishes and recent news reports in the region indicate that Hezbollah has yet to publicly admit that hundreds more were killed last week when pagers and walkie-talkies owned by Hezbollah terrorists exploded, in an major incident that no actor has publicly claimed responsibility for. 79 terrorists from other terror groups, including Palestinian groups, have also been killed in Lebanon over the last 11 months.
16 Hezbollah military leaders killed while planning 7th October-style invasion of Galilee
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has confirmed that Hezbollah’s most senior commanders had been discussing operational plans to perpetrate a Hamas-style mass invasion of northern Israel’s Galilee region when they were targeted by an IDF airstrike last Friday. Hezbollah has confirmed that Israel killed 16 of its most senior commanders, including 11 from its elite Radwan Forces in the Beirut strike.
President Herzog told Sky News: “All of these leaders were meeting to launch the same horrific, horrendous attack that we had on October 7th by Hamas, by burning Israelis, butchering them, raping their women, taking hostages, old people, and little babies”.
The killed commanders included Ibrahim Aqil, who served as head of Hezbollah’s military operations, acting commander of its elite Radwan Force and head of a long-gestating plan to invade the Galilee, while Ahmed Wahbi, was a former commander of the Radwan Force and current head of the terror group’s training unit. News reports in Israel also indicated that the commanders had gathered in person due to Hezbollah’s concerns over their compromised communications networks.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has said the airstrike would “shake up” Hezbollah, adding that the Hezbollah military leaders had “planned for years to occupy the Galilee; they are responsible for the murder of many Israelis, including soldiers, over the years”.
Israel targeted by missiles and drones launched from Iraq
The IDF intercepted a drone launched by an Iran-backed terrorist group in Iraq early on Monday morning, the military stated.
In the 24 hours preceding the attack, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed five other attacks “in support of our people in Gaza”. Of those attacks, two consisted of cruise missiles launched toward the southern Golan Heights before being intercepted by the IDF, whilst the others consisted of drones fired toward Israeli airspace.
The projectiles sounded sirens across several communities in the Golan Heights as the projectiles penetrated Israeli airspace. The IDF observed that at least one projectile was fired from Syria, with the military undertaking an investigation.
The Islamic Resistance of Iraq is an umbrella term for many affiliated terror organisations in the country which share ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The body acts as the Iraqi branch of an ‘Axis of Resistance’ cultivated by Iran since coming to power in 1979.
Tehran provides financial, military and political support to a plethora of state and non-state actors in exchange for influence over decision making, especially with regard to the country’s core foreign policy objective of destroying both Israel and American influence in the Middle East.
Israeli leaders emphasise need to “change the equation” in northern Israel
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the IDF is working to “change the balance of power in the north” amidst its widespread attacks on Hezbollah weaponry and positions in southern Lebanon.
The Prime Minister asserted: “I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north. This is exactly what we are doing. We are destroying thousands of missiles and rockets aimed at Israeli cities and Israeli citizens”.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said that “Hezbollah started this war following the horrendous of Hamas on October 7th” and has been “bombarding us endlessly”. He stressed that Israel had showed restraint until now “but something has to end” as returning the displaced residents to northern Israel “is the natural obligation of any nation to its citizens”. He outlined that Israel is “working to change the equation” and “in order to change the equation, one has to fight”.
The President said that Israel has a “simple message. We don’t want war. We absolutely did not seek this war. This war was instigated by the empire of evil, by the Iranian proxies in the region, under the command of Iran”.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has said “the price that Hezbollah is paying has increased, our attacks will increase”. Noting that Israel has “many more capabilities that we have not yet activated”, Halevi committed that “we will safely return the residents to their homes, and if Hezbollah has not understood this yet, it will get another blow and another blow — until the organisation understands”.
