Following the Israeli army’s announcement yesterday, Tuesday, of the killing of Ali Larijani, secretary of the National Security Council and the de facto leader of the Iranian regime, and Basij Forces commander Gholam Reza Soleimani, Lebanon’s “Hezbollah” announced the start of Operation “Khaybar 1” by targeting the Meron air base in northern Israel with a rocket barrage.
The party, loyal to Tehran, said its fighters targeted gatherings of Israeli soldiers and vehicles in the Jabal Warda area in the border town of Markaba with artillery shells and rockets, in addition to rocket attacks targeting 11 settlements in the Upper and Western Galilee.
“Hezbollah” escalates.. and Israel responds
Israeli media reported yesterday, Tuesday, that more than 50 rockets fired by “Hezbollah” from Lebanon targeted several Israeli settlements, including Kiryat Shmona, Metula, Malkia, Dishon, and others.
The Israeli army said in a statement yesterday that “Hezbollah” fired dozens of rockets toward Israeli territory on Tuesday evening, noting that it had detected prior preparations by party members to carry out launches at a higher rate, prompting Northern Command to begin operations to thwart and disrupt these attacks.
The statement said that the Israeli army targeted the launch platforms and cells that carried out the attacks, preventing “Hezbollah” from launching a major rocket barrage.
The statement indicated that the Israeli army targeted headquarters belonging to the “Imam Hussein” Division in southern Lebanon and other sites belonging to the “Al-Qard Al-Hassan” Association, which is considered the financial arm of “Hezbollah” and is used to pay members’ salaries and support terrorist plots.
Israel vows attacks until summer
On the other hand, an Israeli security source said on Wednesday that the attacks on southern Lebanon “will continue until summer if necessary,” threatening to target anyone in the area.
The source told Sky News Arabia that “the Israeli forces now advancing into southern Lebanon aim to create a buffer zone that removes the threat from residents of northern Israel.”
He added: “There is no fixed definition of the buffer zone in southern Lebanon. If advancing 8 kilometers is required, we will advance; it depends on defensive necessity.”
The Israeli security source said that “there are no targets we refrain from striking in southern Lebanon if they pose a threat.”
For days now, Israel has been targeting military sites belonging to “Hezbollah” in Beirut’s southern suburbs and in other areas of the capital, Beirut, in addition to the party’s sites in southern and eastern Lebanon.
“Hezbollah” dragged the Lebanese people into a suicidal path
This Israeli escalation comes after an attack carried out by Lebanon’s “Hezbollah” on 2 March of this month on sites in northern Israel, using rockets and drones, in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
For her part, Israeli army spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ella Wawiya said, “Hezbollah dragged the Lebanese people into a war that has nothing to do with them. It is a war that serves first and foremost the extremist Iranian regime, a regime that has spread its proxies across the Middle East, and wherever those proxies have spread, ruin and destruction have followed and terrorism has spread.”
She continued: “Hezbollah uses civilian resources and locations to carry out its terrorist activities, storing weapons inside homes and operating from within residential neighborhoods.”
She added, “Hezbollah has turned Beirut, the southern suburbs, and the south into terrorist strongholds with an Iranian character instead of being vibrant areas for the Lebanese people.”
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