Israel Sends 100 Jet Fighters to Hit Lebanon in Pre-Emptive Strike
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Israel’s military hit dozens of targets in Lebanon with about 100 jet fighters early Sunday, saying it was striking first as the militant group Hezbollah prepared for an extensive attack.
The military attacked launchers in 40 locations across southern Lebanon after it detected Hezbollah preparing for a missile-and-rocket attack on northern and central Israel, spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
Israel believes the headquarters of its spy agency, Mossad, just north of Tel Aviv, was among the intended targets, a person familiar with the matter said.
Israel has been bracing for weeks for Hezbollah to retaliate for the killing of a top commander in Beirut in July. The group said Sunday it launched a large number of rockets at an unnamed military target in northern Israel as part of its long-threatened response. It also said it had launched a large number of drones to hit targets deep within Israel.
The group said the attack was successful, but there was no evident impact outside the north by midmorning. Overall, Israel said more than 200 projectiles were launched from Lebanon on Sunday, with multiple hits but no reports of injuries. It said some were intercepted.
Hezbollah said it launched more than 320 rockets and later said two of its members were killed.
The strikes come as the U.S. and regional diplomats are working to head off a wider war following a pair of Israel-linked killings in Tehran and Beirut. Iran and Hezbollah had pledged to respond forcibly but had held fire as a new round of talks toward a cease-fire in Gaza took place.
If it holds, the low number of announced casualties could give both sides room to de-escalate. In April, Iran retaliated for an Israeli strike that killed a group of its military officers meeting in Damascus by launching a barrage of 300 missiles and drones at Israel but did little damage. Israel responded with a limited strike on Iran, after which both sides moved on.
Hezbollah might similarly be satisfied by Sunday’s result, said Danny Citrinowicz, who served as head of the Iran branch for the Israeli military and is now a fellow with the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies.
“They were willing to risk an escalation to balance the deterrence equation, but I don’t think a war,” Citrinowicz said. “For now, everybody can be content.”
Hezbollah said Sunday morning that its attack was over for the day, and Israel said it was back in a defensive posture, though it continued to hit some targets in southern Lebanon.
The sharp uptick in tensions began at the end of July, when Israel killed top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr with a strike in Beirut. Hours later, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed by an explosion at a military guesthouse that Iran blamed on Israel.
Israel said it struck at Shukr after a rocket fired from Lebanon killed 12 young people on a soccer field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, warned Saturday of possible action on the country’s northern front, saying the military was on high alert ahead of what was expected to be a significant week.
Current and former Israeli officials said the military had already been at high alert for a few days, after Israeli intelligence began picking up signs of an impending attack.
“We have been waiting for days for the retaliation of Hezbollah,” said Amir Avivi, a former senior military official who heads a security-oriented think tank in Israel. “The intelligence the IDF has on what’s happening on the other side is excellent,” he said, using the initials for the Israel Defense Forces.
Israel’s military believes Hezbollah intended to fire hundreds of rockets at Israel.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared a state of emergency across the country Sunday morning, which gives the military the ability to set restrictions on civilians. Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu oversaw the operation against Hezbollah from Tel Aviv’s military headquarters.
Israel briefly closed its airspace around its international airport and told civilians in the north and in central areas including Tel Aviv to limit public gatherings until Monday. A passenger on an El Al flight awaiting takeoff from New York said her pilot announced that the plane was loading up on extra fuel in case of an unplanned diversion.
In Tel Aviv, smartphone mapping applications showed their owners to be in Amman, Jordan, apparently the result of GPS spoofing used to throw off incoming projectiles. By early afternoon maps were back to normal, and emergency orders for central Israel including Tel Aviv had been lifted.
Gallant updated U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin following Israel and Hezbollah’s attacks, and they discussed preventing further regional escalation, Gallant’s office said.
Gaza cease-fire talks were set to continue Sunday but have been deadlocked over Israel’s insistence on keeping a military presence along the border between Gaza and Egypt.
Hamas, which hadn’t attended the talks, had said it would send delegates to Sunday’s meeting.
While the U.S. pushes ahead with cease-fire talks, it has also beefed up its military assets in the Middle East to help defend Israel from any attack, including bringing in a second aircraft carrier group and a guided-missile submarine.
That show of force could have contributed to Hezbollah’s choice of a relatively restrained option despite pressure to respond to Shukr’s killing, said Orna Mizrahi, a Lebanon expert also at Institute for National Security Studies.
“There was internal pressure,” she said, in part to restore Hezbollah’s balance of power against Israel. But Hezbollah ultimately operated without Iran. “I think the massive American presence was a deterrent.”
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire in recent days, including strikes that killed a number of militants and a heavy barrage on northern Israel, but within the general pattern since Hezbollah began firing rockets at the country following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have been displaced by the fighting. Israel is under heavy pressure from residents in the north to get them back into their homes.
Avivi, the former senior Israeli military official, said war between Israel and Hezbollah remained inevitable and imminent despite Sunday’s events, as Israelis displaced from the north are still unable to return.
The military has said if the threat can’t be resolved diplomatically, it will have to be done with force.
Adam Chamseddine contributed to this article.
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Supposedly, both the Government of Israel and leaders of the terror group Hezbollah consider the exchange to be a done deal with no further actions planned.
Israel, Hezbollah trade confirmation that they don't want further escalation, diplomats say | The Times of Israel
Why is Hezbollah still listening to Iran- outside of the obvious money and weapons?
Iran has already proven it isn't on par with Israel (not even close) when it comes to advanced military weapons. Iran isn't taking the risk here- it is all on Hezbollah.
The missiles they are firing are a complete joke- if they actually hit the target they are aiming at it is a miracle.
In return for Hezbollah efforts Lebanon gets destroyed by another round of Israeli "targeted" attacks. Sure the Israeli's hit all of the targets they aim at; but whether or not they are actually Hezbollah is another matter.
We are giving money (and weapons) to Lebanon, Israel, and the PA (Throw in Egypt and Jordan as well. Their failure to aid the Palestinians has not gone unnoticed). We have wasted even more money in Gaza directly, and with the UN to try and aid the Palestinians. Yet nothing ever changes in the world's most dysfunctional sandbox. The conditions for war are exactly the same as before. Nothing was resolved- yet we are supposed to believe both sides are now somehow (at least for the time being) content?
Think of the inflation causing debt all of our spending in the ME has caused; and they are closer to all out war than ever before.
Our foreign policy is stuck on stupid; and this is the result.
We need to elect the change candidate: Donald Trump.