ISRAELI warplanes blitzed Hezbollah targets in Lebanon with pre-emptive airstrikes overnight as the group carried out a revenge attack for the assassination of a senior commander last month.
Hezbollah aimed to fire thousands of rockets towards the north and central Tel Aviv, Israel claims, but was only able to launch some 320 missiles after IDF strikes thwarted its plans.
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The Iran-backed terror proxy group said it “began an air attack with a large number of drones” across the border, followed by “more than 320” Katyusha rockets launched at “enemy positions”.
Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said 100 fighter jets struck over 40 launch areas in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah operations are mostly focused amid civilian populations.
Another IDF spokesperson, Nadav Shoshani, said rockets fired by Hezbollah were “part of a larger attack that was planned” and added “we were able to thwart a big part of it this morning”.
Israel dubbed its pre-emptive strikes aimed mostly at strongholds across southern Lebanon an “act of self-defence”.
The IDF has engaged in tit-for-tat strikes with Hezbollah for 10 months since war broke out in the Gaza Strip.
But last night’s firefight is a major escalation that threatens to trigger an all-out war which could draw in the United States, Iran and militant groups across the region.
The IDF revealed on Sunday morning how Israeli intelligence had identified a planned attack by Hezbollah involving thousands of rockets with some earmarked for Tel Aviv, Sky reports.
They estimate the group was able to fire only 250 drones and missiles towards the north with “very little” damage after their preemptive strikes at around 4.30am.
Sirens blasted across northern Israel as the army’s advanced Iron Dome Defence system obliterated Hezbollah rockets mid-air this morning.
Hezbollah issued a chilling statement on Sunday saying they had completed the “first phase” of a revenge campaign against Israel.
The terror group, Iran’s largest proxy army in the Middle East, claimed to have hit 11 Israeli military targets.
Flights were axed to and from Israel’s primary Ben Gurion airport as the chaos unfolded – although they have since resumed.
Daniel Hagari said: “We are ready to do everything we need to defend the people of Israel.”
He later revealed that IDF warplanes “attacked and destroyed thousands of Hezbollah’s firing canisters, most most of them aimed towards the north of the country and some also towards central Israel”.
The Lebanon health ministry has said three people were killed in the strikes fired from Israel.
They said one was killed by an “Israeli drone strike on a car in the village of Khiam” and “the Israeli occupation attack on the village of Tiri” killed two.
The Amal group – an ally of Hezbollah – later said a militant from Khiam had been killed.
It was not clear whether the other two were civilians or militants.
Some 605 people have been killed in Lebanon as a result of cross-border strikes between Israel and Hezbollah – with AFP estimating some 131 of them to be civilians.
Israeli officials in the north – including in the occupied Golan Heights – have said at least 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday morning: “We are determined to do everything possible to defend our country, to return the residents of the north safely to their homes and to continue to uphold a simple rule: Whoever harms us – we harm him.”
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