IDF hits Hezbollah targets as terror group fires rockets, missiles at Israel
For the second day in a row, Israel said it carried out broad attacks on Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group, in response to rockets and missiles it fired at northern Israel throughout the day on Monday.
Several IDF units along the Lebanon border were targeted by Hezbollah, as well as civilian homes in the community of Misgav Am.
There were no reports of injuries in the attacks on Israel.
Hezbollah has carried out daily rocket, missile, and drone attacks on northern Israel, as the IDF battles the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.
At his evening press briefing, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the army attacked a broad range of Hezbollah targets. Aircraft bombed military sites and tanks fired at terror infrastructure in the border area, he said.
The already volatile situation became potentially more explosive as an air strike in Syria killed a senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran blamed Israel for the attack that killed Brig. Gen. Razi Mousavi in the Damascus suburb of Sayeda Zeinab, and vowed revenge.
Asked about the killing of Mousavi, Hagari said he would not comment on foreign media reports, but noted, “The IDF, of course, has a role to guard and protect the security interests of Israel.”
Hezbollah responded to Mousavi’s death by saying it was “a blatant and shameless attack that crosses all boundaries.” The Iran-backed terror group described Mousavi as “one of the best.”
A senior IRGC officer, Mousavi was considered Iran’s top man in coordinating between the Iranian military and Syria, as well as supplying pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Lebanon, including Hezbollah.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Rasi vowed that Israel would “pay for this crime” and the IRGC, confirming that Mousavi had been killed, also swore to avenge his death.
Earlier in the day Lebanese media reported Israeli shelling near the village of Ayta ash-Shab, close to the border.
Two anti-tank guided missiles were fired from Lebanon at Misgav Am. There were no reports of injuries in that attack.
The town has been largely evacuated of civilians in recent weeks, due to rising attacks from Hezbollah, as have most communities near the border.
Air raid sirens warning of incoming rocket fire sounded in northern Israeli communities including Rosh Hanikra and Achziv. No damage was reported.
On Sunday, the IDF also said it carried out “wide-scale” attacks on Hezbollah targets.
Cross-border attacks from Lebanon have persisted since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7, when the Palestinian terror group carried out a devastating assault on southern Israel.
Israel has said it will no longer tolerate the presence of Hezbollah along the northern frontier after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, in which thousands of terrorists burst into Israel from Gaza, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping over 240, mostly civilians.
As Israel launched a military campaign, including a ground incursion, to destroy Hamas, remove it from power in Gaza, and release the hostages, it also rushed forces to the north as a precaution against Hezbollah mimicking the Hamas attack.
Israel has increasingly warned that if the international community does not push Hezbollah — which, like Hamas, is sworn to Israel’s destruction — away from the border through diplomatic means, it will take action.
Since hostilities began in October, four civilians and eight soldiers have been killed on the Israeli side, including a soldier who was killed in a rocket barrage Friday. Another IDF soldier was seriously injured in the attack.
Hezbollah has named 124 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 16 Palestinian terror operatives, a Lebanese soldier, and at least 17 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.
Source » timesofisrael.com
