IAF strikes Hezbollah in six areas of Southern Lebanon
The airstrikes come after a rocket volley from Lebanon damages a building in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona; in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces’ Counter-Terror Unit is operating in the heart of Khan Yunis.
Israeli Air Force jets struck Hezbollah targets in six areas of Southern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Tuesday evening.
Targets included a Hezbollah military site in the area of Ayta ash Shab from which two anti-tank missiles were launched towards the area of Biranit earlier in the day. No injuries were reported in Israel in that attack.
The IDF said it also struck a Hezbollah operational command center in Jabal al-Baba; rocket-launch posts in the area of Matmoura; and military compounds in the areas of Majdal Zoun, Houla and Kafra in Southern Lebanon.
Earlier on Tuesday, a volley of rocket attacks launched from Lebanon damaged a building in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona.
Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for eight waves of attacks on northern Israel in the past 24 hours, according to data released by the Alma Center research group on Tuesday, though not for the Kiryat Shmona attack.
The recent attacks from Lebanon included Katyusha rockets and anti-tank missiles, targeting civilian communities in the Western Galilee.
On Monday, an Indian worker was killed and nine were injured in an anti-tank missile strike on the community of Margaliot, sparking IAF airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in Southern Lebanon.
The IDF also released on Tuesday footage of an IAF F-15 shooting down an unmanned aerial vehicle that intruded into Israeli airspace from Syria earlier in the day.
The footage shows air crews tracking down the UAV and discussing its location over the air force’s radio network before one pilot states, “We are monitoring the target. Immediately carrying out [the strike].”
Footage then shows an air-to-air missile shooting out of an aircraft and striking the UAV, downing it.
The UAV attack set off a Home Front Command phone application alert for open areas in the Golan Heights.
Also on Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited the IDF Artillery Corps highly classified Moran Unit in northern Israel, which reportedly activates advanced weapons systems. Gallant was joined by senior military commanders, including the head of the Ground Forces Headquarters, Brig. Gen. Aviram Sela.
During the visit, Gallant said: “We must understand the situation we are in with regards to Hezbollah. They are continuously degrading the reality and bringing us closer to a point of decision, in which we will have to decide what we do. For us, the supreme mission is to return residents to their homes. We will do this either through an arrangement or through an operational-war operation, and this must be clear because the significance of it for you is that you could be called to it, from one minute to the next, as they say.”
Gallant called on the military personnel to be prepared “all of the time,” adding, “I don’t wish for us to reach the stage of war and I think there is a chance of preventing it, but I repeat the very clear and very simple message I am telling you. Hezbollah is deteriorating the situation and bringing us to a decision point.”
Cache of weapons discovered in central Gaza
Meanwhile, on the southern front, the IDF announced on Tuesday that its Counter-Terror Unit (known by its Hebrew acronym, LOTAR), is conducting a special mission in the heart of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza against Hamas.
During the series of operations, the unit uncovered dozens of rocket warheads, grenades, mortars and other weapons, as well as military equipment, hidden near a school used as a shelter for displaced Gazan civilians, the IDF said.
During LOTAR Unit raids of Hamas hideouts and military strongholds in residential areas, and acting on intelligence, “the forces searched several Hamas infrastructures and located a weapons storage facility” near the school, it added.
The hidden weapons included cartridges and ammunition, while some of the munitions were concealed in sacks and hiding pits.
The post IAF strikes Hezbollah in six areas of Southern Lebanon appeared first on Israel365 News.
Israel in the News
