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2024-09-24 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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As of 9/24 at 2:20 a.m. Israel Time: Israel hits 1,600 targets in strikes on Hezbollah as panicked Lebanese flee; at least 492 killed, 1,645 maimed
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Photos and videos at the link. [IsraelTimes] IDF says it targeted many homes where Hezbollah keeps missiles in deadliest barrages since 2006 war, urges civilians to get away; Hezbollah fires 200 rockets deep into Israel
Widespread Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon killed at least 492 people Monday and injured over 1,645 more, Beirut said, as Israel cautioned that strikes against the group would expand and Lebanese civilians were warned to flee areas where the Iran-backed terror group was thought to be hiding weapons.
The IDF said the air force was targeting homes where “rockets, drones and missiles” were emplaced by Hezbollah, and repeatedly urged civilians in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley to flee from homes where such weapons were stored. It said many of the dead were Hezbollah members.
Israelis also took shelter as Hezbollah bombarded Israel with over 200 rockets on Monday alone, setting off sirens in northern Israel, near the bay metropolis of Haifa and as far south as some West Bank settlements near Tel Aviv, causing some damage but no major casualties. The barrages, which marked some of the heaviest since fighting broke out on October 8 last year, served to up the ante after the terror group bombarded northern communities with at least 150 rockets a day earlier.
In Lebanon, videos shared on social media appeared to show masses fleeing major cities, and authorities began opening schools to shelter thousands of newly displaced.
The Israel Defense Forces said it struck some 1,600 targets across Lebanon on Monday, including many homes it said housed weapons directly threatening the country, in the deadliest barrages of airstrikes since the 2006 war against Hezbollah, ratcheting up fears of a fresh outbreak of all-out conflict on the restive border.
Speaking from an underground command room at military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was changing the balance of power with Hezbollah, signaling Israel would no longer play defense after months of cross-border violence.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have been displaced from their homes in northern Israel since last October by relentless Hezbollah rocket fire, and Israel’s cabinet last week designated the secure return of those residents to their homes as an official aim of the current conflict.
At least 492 people were killed in the strikes and another 1,645 were wounded, Lebanon’s health ministry said, marking the deadliest day in Lebanon since Hezbollah began firing at Israel last year, drawing Israeli counterstrikes.
The dead and wounded included women and children, the ministry said. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on casualties within the terror group, which has suffered heavy losses in recent days.
On social media, videos showed long lines of traffic as civilians tried to reach safety, and streams of vehicles flowing out of small mountainside towns. In one video, cars could be seen queued up on a highway lined with Hezbollah and Lebanese flags as black smoke from recent airstrikes billowed in the background. In the seaside city of Sidon, all eight lanes of Rafic Hariri Boulevard were filled with cars pointed north as they sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic. In Nabatieh, a video showed a number of people in cars trying to leave town being blocked as a massive explosion erupted in front of them.
In a press conference, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari noted that some videos of strikes depicted secondary explosions, pointing to these as evidence of Hezbollah weapons stores.
“The sights that are now seen in southern Lebanon are Hezbollah’s weapons exploding inside houses. Every home we struck, there are rockets, drones, missiles, which were intended to kill Israeli civilians,” Hagari said, urging civilians in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley to flee from homes where Hezbollah has been storing weapons.
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, had given civilians two hours to leave Beqaa.
Netanyahu, who met with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Air Force commander Tomer Bar, said Israel’s strikes were aimed at eliminating senior Hezbollah officials, terrorists, and missile caches.
Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary told his countrymen to ignore the warnings, noting that his office in Beirut had received a recorded message telling people to leave the building.
“This comes in the framework of the psychological war implemented by the enemy,” Makary said, urging people “not to give the matter more attention than it deserves.”
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency also reported airstrikes on different areas, including some far from the border.
The agency said strikes hit a forested area in the central province of Byblos, about 130 kilometers (81 miles) north of the Israeli-Lebanese border, for the first time since Hezbollah began firing at Israel in October. No injuries were reported there. Israel also bombed targets in the northeastern Baalbek and Hermel regions, where a shepherd was killed and two family members were wounded, according to the news agency. It said a total of 30 people were wounded in strikes.
In Israel, sirens sounded in dozens of communities, as Hezbollah targeted the strategic industrial center of Haifa and towns across the north for a second day in a row with over 100 rockets in quick succession, according to the IDF. Sirens also sounded in West Bank settlements northeast of Tel Aviv during a volley of at least 10 rockets, the army said, seemingly marking a rare use of long-range rockets by Hezbollah.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, but some rockets were reported to have caused damage.
Some 80,000 Lebanese were thought to have already fled southern Lebanon over the last 12 months, which have seen near-daily cross-border Hezbollah rocket attacks and Israeli airstrikes. Another 60,000 people in northern Israel have been forced to evacuate their homes.
Israel has long accused Hezbollah of transforming entire communities in southern Lebanon into terror bases, with hidden rocket launchers and other infrastructure.
Monday morning saw Hagari show previously unreleased footage of Hezbollah operatives preparing to launch a cruise missile from within a civilian home in a southern Lebanon village. The building was targeted in an airstrike. The cruise missile was identified by the IDF as a Russian-made “DR-3,” which appeared to be a variant of the Tupolev Tu-143 drone, also called VR-3. The IDF said the missile was packed with some 300 kilograms of explosives and had a range of up to 200 kilometers.
An Israeli military official said Israel is focused on aerial operations and has no immediate plans for a ground operation. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with regulations, said the strikes are aimed at curbing Hezbollah’s ability to launch more strikes into Israel.
It’s going to take a few days to blow up the claimed 200,000 rockets and missiles Hezbollah has stashed, along with the rest of the weapons cached against expanding the “resistance” into Israel. The terror group has named 506 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. Another 79 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have also been killed.
Hezbollah garage find, not for sale
[X]
Monday’s strikes on Hezbollah largely targeting cruise missiles, mid-range rockets — IDF
[IsraelTimes] IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the Israeli Air Force has struck some 1,300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon today, and is continuing to strike at this hour.
In a press conference, Hagari says the targets were largely weapons stored in homes, including “cruise missiles that can reach hundreds of kilometers, heavy rockets with a 1,000-kilogram warhead, medium-range rockets that reach a range of up to 200 kilometers, short-range rockets, and armed unmanned aerial vehicles.”
Regarding the high death toll reported in Lebanon, Hagari says “These numbers also refer to many terrorists we killed today who were near the weapons.” He says the IDF will provide its own figures at a later time.
IDF chief says Israel dismantling capabilities Hezbollah built up for 20 years
[IsraelTimes] IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says the military is dismantling Hezbollah capabilities that it built up for 20 years.
“The IDF this morning launched a proactive offensive operation. We are taking [away] military infrastructure that Hezbollah built for 20 years. This is very significant,” Halevi says in a video distributed by the IDF, from an assessment at the military’s underground command room.
“We are striking targets, preparing the next stages… in the end, everything needs to be aimed at creating the conditions to return the [displaced] residents of the north to their homes,” he adds.
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Posted by trailing wife 2024-09-24 2024-09-24 00:10||
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