Iran’s Lebanese proxy fired a barrage of 45 rockets Thursday mid-morning at the ancient Israeli Mediterranean coastal city of Akko and other communities located in the Upper Galilee, in the Mateh Asher Regional Council district.
The IDF Aerial Defense Array intercepted some of rockets, and the rest landed in open areas, the IDF said.
But the Israeli Air Force is working hard to degrade the terrorist organization’s to attack the Jewish State, and its rocket launchers have been silent since Wednesday afternoon.
At around the same time, Israeli fighter pilots were at work attacking Hezbollah terror targets in the areas around Sidon and Tyre.
Overnight, the IAF used military intelligence to strike approximately 75 Hezbollah terror targets in the area of the Beka’a Valley and in southern Lebanon.
The targets included weapons storage facilities, ready-to-fire launchers, terrorists, and terrorist infrastructure, the IDF said. Among the targets were private homes were numerous missiles and other ordnance were stored with launchers ready to be fired at Israeli civilians.
Throughout the day on Wednesday, Israeli warplanes continued their airstrikes across Lebanon. Fighter jets struck hundreds of terrorist targets, degrading the capabilities and infrastructure of Lebanon’s Iranian proxy. By 4 pm, the Israeli Air Force had struck more than 280 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, the IDF said. During their operations, the Israeli Air Force carried out a wave of strikes on 70 targets belonging to Hezbollah’s Intelligence Directorate, making it more difficult for Hezbollah to produce an intelligence situational assessment.
Over the past three days, Israel struck more than 2,000 terrorist targets, including the rocket launchers that were fired at Tzfat (Safed), Nahariya, Wadi Ara, and the Jezreel and Jordan Valley regions.
“The strikes that we have carried out in recent days have proven what we have been saying for years: Hezbollah exploits the civilian population and its surroundings in Lebanon for terrorist activities,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters in a briefing Wednesday night.
Hagari said in his statement that the IDF has attacked more than 2,000 Hezbollah terrorist targets in recent days “to destroy capabilities and infrastructure” hidden in the homes of civilians who are used by the Iranian proxy as human shields.
“The IDF is continuing operating to dismantle and degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities and terrorist infrastructure … We are continuing to strike, we’re not stopping, while simultaneously preparing plans for the next phases,” Hagari said.
The IDF mobilized two reserve brigades on Wednesday “for operational missions in the northern arena, which will allow the continuation of the war,” he added.
At around 6:30 am Wednesday morning, Hezbollah for the first time fired a long-range ballistic missile at Tel Aviv. The missile was shot down by Israel’s David Sling aerial defense system.
Hezbollah published a propaganda video in which it presented details of the surface-to-surface missile, called the “Qader 1,” which the terror group claimed has a range of up to 190 kilometers (118 miles) with a warhead weighing 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed for New York at around 4 am Thursday, following the conclusion of a four-hour political-security cabinet meeting. Netanyahu is slated to address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday in New York; he is expected to fly back to Israel immediately following the conclusion of the Sabbath on Saturday evening.
