IDF says it hit 30 Hezbollah sites in Beirut, Palestinian terror targets in Damascus
Strike in Syria said to kill 15 people; military issues evacuation orders to residents in targeted parts of Lebanese capital; over 140 rocket launchers destroyed in past week
Israeli warplanes on Thursday hit Hezbollah sites in Beirut after the military issued warnings to residents in targeted areas to evacuate their homes, saying they were located near assets belonging to the terror group. Footage shared by Lebanese media showed one of the strikes in the vicinity of Beirut’s international airport, as a passenger plane was seen taxiing in the background.
Jets also struck sites in Damascus belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed carrying out airstrikes in Syria, saying it targeted several buildings and command centers belonging to the PIJ. Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said the strikes killed 15 and wounded 16 others.
The strikes targeted two residential buildings in the Mezzeh district of the capital and the nearby city of Qudssaya, SANA said.
The Israeli military said the strikes were a “significant blow” to the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian terror group and its operatives.
The IDF has carried out numerous strikes in Syria in recent months, where Hezbollah has a presence, and which the terror group uses to smuggle arms into Lebanon. Other Iranian-backed terror groups that attack Israel also operate there.
Islamic Jihad carried out the October 7 onslaught alongside Hamas, and its operatives have also been involved in launching attacks on Israel from Lebanon, alongside Hezbollah.
In Lebanon, the IDF said strikes targeting Hezbollah command centers, weapon depots and other infrastructure were carried out overnight and in the morning.
It said over 30 Hezbollah sites in the Dahiyeh suburb had been targeted over the past two days.
The sites were located “in the heart of a civilian population,” the IDF said, accusing the terror group of using innocents as human shields.
The IDF also issued new evacuation orders for Lebanese civilians in the vicinity of two buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday afternoon, ahead of airstrikes against Hezbollah assets. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, published maps alongside the announcement, which called on civilians to distance themselves at least 500 meters from the sites.
The IDF said Thursday that in the past week, airstrikes had destroyed more than 140 Hezbollah rocket launchers.
Among the launchers hit were some used to fire barrages at northern and central Israel on Wednesday.
Five people were killed in strikes on the towns of Bazourieh and Jumayjimah, Lebanese media reported.
On the ground in south Lebanon, IDF commandos located a multiple-rocket launcher belonging to Hezbollah, the military said. The Commando Brigade, operating under the 91st Division, has been operating in recent days at several “new targets” in southern Lebanon.
The IDF said the commandos found and destroyed a rocket launcher with 32 barrels aimed at Israel, along with other weapons. It also said an airstrike killed two senior commanders in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit who were responsible for anti-tank units and operations in the coastal area.
Separately, it said some 200 Hezbollah operatives were killed over the past week during the fighting in southern Lebanon and in airstrikes.
The IDF published footage of some of the strikes.
Additionally, the army said troops from the 188th Brigade operating in southern Lebanon had uncovered major weapons depots belonging to the Radwan unit.
Among the arms discovered were anti-tank weapons, sniper rifles and rocket launchers primed to fire at communities in northern Israel. All the arms were destroyed.
A barrage of five rockets was launched from Lebanon at Haifa on Thursday afternoon. The IDF said most of the projectiles were intercepted, while the rest struck open areas. There were no reports of injuries or major damage.
The previous night, the IDF said it shot down a drone “from the east,” usually a reference to Iraq, as it headed toward Israel, hours after downing a UAV over Syrian skies.
In both incidents, the military stressed the drones never entered Israeli airspace and were intercepted over Syria.
Channel 12 reported Thursday that a response from Beirut to a Lebanon ceasefire proposal from the US could come within the next 24 hours.
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was in Washington this week to meet with Biden administration officials on the finishing touches to the proposal, including written guarantees that Israel has freedom of action against Hezbollah threats in Lebanon.
Amid intense fighting, The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Israel was pushing ahead with efforts to forge a ceasefire there, as a foreign policy “gift” for the incoming Trump administration.
“There is an understanding that Israel would gift something to Trump … that in January there will be an understanding about Lebanon,” an Israeli official told the Post, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Ali Hassan Khalil, the political aide to Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, on Wednesday said Lebanese negotiators had reached a preliminary understanding with US envoy Amos Hochstein on a framework for a ceasefire.
In an interview with the broadcaster Al Jazeera on Wednesday evening, Khalil said that this proposal was conveyed to the Israeli side through Hochstein, though Lebanon had yet to receive any response or any suggested amendments from Israel.
He said any potential deal must be firmly based on UN Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, to help the Lebanese army keep its southern border area with Israel free of weapons or armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese state.
Khalil said Lebanon had no objection to US or French participation in overseeing ceasefire compliance.
Israel has vowed to push Hezbollah away from the border and restore security to its communities near the boundary after over a year of deadly rocket and drone fire from the Iran-backed terror group that forced the evacuation of some 60,000 residents from the north of the country.
Israel’s Energy Minister Eli Cohen, meanwhile, said Israel is closer to reaching an arrangement over fighting with Hezbollah than it has been since the start of the war, but that it must retain freedom to act inside Lebanon should any deal be violated.
A key sticking point for Israel, he said in a Thursday interview with Reuters, is ensuring it retains freedom of action should Hezbollah return to border areas where it could pose a threat to Israeli communities.
“We will be less forgiving than in the past over attempts to create strongholds in territory near Israel,” Cohen said.
1 comment:
That must have been fun for the people on that passenger plane.
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