IDF fighting Hezbollah terrorists, not Lebanon, Netanyahu reiterates
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese citizens to rise up against Hezbollah on Tuesday while warning that the military will not hesitate to strike any infrastructure used by the terror group.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant meet at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, Aug. 25, 2024. Credit: Ma’ayan Toaf/GPO.
“I say to the people of Lebanon: Our war is not with you. Our war is with Hezbollah. Nasrallah is leading you to the edge of the abyss,” Netanuahu after a visit to an undisclosed intelligence base.
“I told you to evacuate homes in which there is a missile in the living room and a rocket in the garage,” he said. “Whoever has a missile in the living room and a rocket in the garage will no longer have a home.”
The Israeli Air Force will keep up strikes in Lebanon, he warned.
Hezbollah is “putting your country in danger,” Netanyahu said, urging Lebanese to “free yourselves from Nasrallah’s grip, for your own good.”
The Israel Defence Forces on Monday released evidence showing how Hezbollah terrorists store munitions inside civilian homes, including images of a long-range missile on a hydraulic system in the attic of a home in the southern village of Houmine el-Tahta.
“It is ready to launch from an opening in the roof. Under the attic, on the first floor, a Lebanese family lives, serving as a human shield,” military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters on Monday night.
“This is an immediate and real threat to Israeli civilians, and we have an obligation to remove it,” Hagari explained during the press conference.
Jerusalem has escalated attacks on Hezbollah since adding the return of evacuated Israeli civilians to the north as an official war goal on Sept. 17.
Hezbollah has attacked Israel nearly daily since Oct. 8, firing thousands of rockets, missiles and drones. The attacks have killed more than 40 people and caused widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the violence.
Throughout the day on Tuesday, the Israeli Air Force struck more than 1,600 Hezbollah terror targets in Southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley as part of “Operation Northern Arrows,” according to the Israeli military.
As part of the campaign against Hezbollah, the IDF has sent thousands of text messages to Lebanese civilians, warning them to steer clear of terror sites. According to local reports, the Israeli military also hijacked popular Lebanese radio stations to deliver warnings to noncombatants.
On Monday evening, Israeli Air Force jets carried out an unsuccessful airstrike targeting Ali Karaki, Hezbollah’s highest-ranking remaining commander following Friday’s targeted killing of Ibrahim Aqil.
Unnamed Israeli officials confirmed to Israel Hayom on Tuesday that he survived the strike, saying that the use of smaller bombs with the goal of minimizing civilian casualties contributed to the operation’s failure.
Hebrew media reports said on Sunday that last week’s mass pager and radio explosions, which have been attributed to Israel, were designed to ensure that only Hezbollah terrorists carrying the devices would be hurt.
JNS
