IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari reported at 8:12 AM Sunday: “About 100 Air Force fighter jets, under the direction of the Northern Command and the Intelligence Division, attacked and destroyed thousands of launch pads of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Most of them were directed at northern Israel and some at the center of the country. Also, more than 40 launch sites were attacked.”
IAF attack in south Lebanon:
The Air Force has been training for this attack for years, according to Makor Rishon’s Rony Eitan. The preemptive strike on many thousands of targets at once had one chance to succeed, he notes, however, according to him, what we saw this morning is not the opening blow in an all-out campaign but rather a move designed to thwart a specific attack. In other words, the IDF spent years’ worth of expansive intelligence on tactical assaults. Sunday morning’s attack could result in a six-day war-like turning of the tables in Lebanon and elsewhere, but instead, the folks in Netanyahu’s Cabinet are thinking small.
IAF attack on launchers in south Lebanon:
Sunday’s attack will most likely end not in the total incapacitation of Hezbollah, as Israel did to the Egyptians, Jordanians, and Syrians in June 1967, but in a local, limited blow that pushes the can of an inevitable war down the street.
Lebanon’s National News Agency’s correspondent in Nabatieh reported that “large-scale air aggression launched by Israeli occupation aircraft targeted the Chqif Castle on the river bank, Zoutar, the outskirts of the town of Ain Qana, Kfar Fila, Louaizeh, Bsalia, and Kfar Melki. The enemy raids also targeted the Bir Kalb area in Jabal al-Rayhan, and the outskirts of the towns of Sajd, Kfar Fila, and Sarba.”
Hezbollah denied the reports of devastating Israeli attacks and the downing of the terrorists’ rockets and drones. It released a message stating, “Indeed, we will take retribution from the criminals. Firstly, by the grace of Allah, the first phase has been successfully completed. This phase involved targeting Israeli barracks and sites to facilitate the passage of assault drones toward their intended target deep within the entity. The drones have, by Allah’s grace, crossed as planned. Secondly, the number of Katyusha rockets fired so far has exceeded 320 rockets aimed at enemy sites.
“Thirdly, the sites that have been targeted and hit by the grace of Allah are: 1. Meron Base; 2. Neve Ziv Bunker; 3. Ga’aton Base; 4. Al-Zaoura Bunkers; 5. Al-Sahl Base; 6. Kela Barracks in the occupied Syrian Golan; 7. Yoav Barracks in the occupied Syrian Golan; 8. Nafah Base in the occupied Syrian Golan; 9. Yarden Base in the occupied Syrian Golan; 10. Ein Zeitim Base; 11. Ramot Naftali Barracks.”
Braggadocios claims aside, the only reported casualty on the Israeli side was an elderly woman in Acco who was hurt by Iron Dome shrapnel that took down a Hezbollah rocket. There was also damage to property up north, including a chicken coop that caught fire.
One victim of Hezbollah’s attack Sunday morning:
NNA reported that “enemy aircraft are flying over Sidon and the south. Enemy aircraft have also been conducting intensive flights since the early morning hours at low levels in the skies of Sidon and southern regions.”
