In a statement, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu emphasised that Israel’s recent air attacks on Hizbullah in southern Lebanon, which took place early Sunday morning, would not be the last of their kind. This assertion comes following the most significant exchange of fire between the two factions since the conflict in Gaza commenced, a development that has sparked anxiety about potential escalation into a full-fledged regional war.
Netanyahu kept mum on potential future measures following the intense conflict. However, he indicated that Israel’s strategic endeavours would focus on restructuring the status quo in the north. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) utilised around a hundred fighter jets to strike over 40 locations within Lebanon during a seven-hour sortie operation. Hizbullah responded by launching a barrage of rockets and drones towards Israel.
Netanyahu stated that these air strikes successfully obliterated thousands of short-range rockets engineered to target both Israeli citizens and troops stationed in their northern region of Galilee. Furthermore, the prime minister reported that all drones launched towards a key target at the heart of the nation by Hizbullah had been successfully intercepted by the IDF.
While Netanyahu refrained from disclosing the targeted location, Hizbullah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, alleged it to be a military intelligence base located 110km into Israeli territory, just on Tel Aviv’s outskirts. This was presumed to refer to Glilot military base, housing both the Mossad spy agency and other military intelligence units like electronic surveillance entity, Unit 8200.
The strikes on Lebanon saw the demise of two Hizbullah soldiers and another militant affiliated with their group. Simultaneously, an Israeli naval officer was killed with two additional service members injured on a patrol boat just off northern Israel’s coast after being hit by debris from an Iron Dome interceptor missile.
Nasrallah, in a briefing on Sunday evening, attempted to quell concerns regarding the Israeli attacks’ impacts. He presented Hizbullah’s counterattack, which sought to redress the killing of a top-level commander in the previous month, as a triumph. He also reported the successful launch and entrance of all deployed drones into Israeli airspace, alleging that the Katyusha rockets’ launch (320, as officially declared) was to divert the Israeli Iron Dome air defence system in preparation for their drone attacks.
The Secretary General of Hizbullah declared that the Lebanese Shia military faction had opted not to retaliate the late July murder of its leader, Fuad Shukr, with strikes on Israeli citizens or property but instead to focus solely on military objectives. He stated that the Hizbullah’s collection of guided missiles, which had not been launched or impaired by Israeli air raids, remained a potential weapon for future use. The consequences of Sunday’s missile volley will be gauged prior to making a choice about further retributive action for Shukr’s murder.
Nasrallah, during a broadcasted speech, indicated that there might be additional responses if the current results were deemed inadequate. Both Nasrallah and Netanyahu kept alive the chance of more exchanges across the Israel-Lebanon border, as reported by Reuters citing two anonymous diplomats, stating that both parties had communicated and agreed on considering the exchange as complete and that neither party sought a complete war.
Israel Katz, Israel’s Foreign Minister, similarly emphasised that his nation did not desire a full-blown conflict, though they would act in response to the evolving situation on the ground. Nevertheless, there is ongoing political pressure on Netanyahu’s administration to enable 80,000 displaced residents from northern Israel, who were forced to abandon their homes due to Hizbullah’s rocket and artillery attacks in support of Hamas, to return. These attacks occurred after the unexpected assault on Israel by the Palestinian militant group on 7th October last year.