Israeli fighter jets carried out a series of
...
KABOOM!...
s on Hezbollah targets in the Beqaa Valley of eastern Leb
...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...overnight Thursday, the military said.
The IDF said in a statement Friday morning that the targets, which "posed a threat to the Israeli home front and troops," included a military facility with an underground weapons manufacturing site and infrastructure at border crossings between Syria and Lebanon which the terror group used to smuggle arms.
The strikes were carried out after Hezbollah launched a surveillance drone at Israel Thursday, which the military says was intercepted. The IDF said the drone was a violation of the ceasefire agreement.
"The (army) continues to remain committed to the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and will not permit any terrorist activity of this kind," the military said.
No sirens were triggered by the drone incursion, the military noted in its statement, adding: "The IDF will not allow terror activities by the Hezbollah terror organization in Lebanon, and will act to remove any threat to Israel or its citizens."
It was the first such incident since the ceasefire deal went into effect in late November, after more than a year of fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group. The agreement forbids the terror group from operating south of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Israel, and allows Israel to respond to imminent threats.
According to the military, the drone was intercepted by the Israeli Air Force using a ground-based air defense system before it crossed the border into Israel.
The incident came in the wake of an Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah weapons convoy on Tuesday, and reports — unconfirmed by the military — of an Israeli dronezap on Wednesday.