Israeli warplanes targeted more than 300 Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon on Monday and Israel warned civilians to evacuate the area as more intense strikes are on the way.
Lebanese officials said at least 182 people were killed and over 700 injured in the strikes, including “children, women, and paramedics.”
The IDF said Hezbollah fired at least 150 rockets, missiles, and other projectiles at Israeli territory on Saturday and Sunday. Most of the attacks were launched from inside Lebanon and some of them reached further into Israel than previous Hezbollah attacks.
“This morning, the IDF launched extensive, proactive airstrikes, based on precise intelligence, aimed at degrading the capabilities and infrastructure of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon. This is infrastructure that Hezbollah has built over many years,” Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a statement on Monday.
Hagari said the campaign was focused on eliminating Hezbollah artillery hidden inside civilian structures, which Hezbollah uses to launch indiscriminate barrages against Israeli civilian targets.
“The scenes that can be seen now in southern Lebanon show Hezbollah’s weapons exploding inside homes. Every house that we strike contains weapons – rockets, missiles, UAVs that are intended to kill Israeli civilians,” he said.
“We are preparing to strike terrorist targets in the Beqaa Valley region soon. Hezbollah stores strategic weapons in civilian buildings, knowingly using the population as human shields and endangering them,” he said.
Hagari warned Lebanese residents of the Beqaa Valley to “move away immediately” from “houses where rockets and weapons are stored.”
“You can see the operations we are currently conducting in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah intends to launch these weapons toward Israel, and we will not allow it! Stay away for your own protection,” he warned.
“Hassan Nasrallah is lying to you and putting you in danger,” Hagari said, referring to the leader of Hezbollah. “Listen to the warnings and messages that will be issued by the IDF for your safety and the safety of your families.”
Israeli military officials said Hagari’s warning for civilians to clear the area around Hezbollah’s hidden weapons was the first such warning the IDF has ever issued for Lebanon.
Hagari also promised the citizens of Israel the IDF “will continue to do everything to protect you,” a pledge echoed by other Israeli officials who noted that Hezbollah had displaced tens of thousands of Israeli civilians from their homes by deliberately attacking civilian targets, with very little condemnation from the international community.
“We have to bring our citizens back to their homes. It is clearly a very dangerous situation and clearly has a potential of escalating dramatically,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Sunday, explaining why the intense campaign to eliminate Hezbollah’s terror weapons was necessary.
Nasrallah dared the Israelis to launch a ground invasion in a fiery speech on Thursday, calling it a “historic opportunity” for Hezbollah to defeat the IDF. Israeli warplanes conducted window-shaking flybys of Beirut during Nasrallah’s speech to prove that the Hezbollah leader was not addressing Lebanon live as he claimed, but rather pre-recorded his remarks from deep in hiding.
Israeli military officials said on Monday there are no “immediate plans” for a ground operation, but airstrikes would continue to degrade Hezbollah’s ability to attack targets in Israel.
Lebanese officials on Monday ordered hospitals to cancel all procedures except emergency surgery so they could treat injuries from the Israeli airstrikes. Schools in southern Beirut and eastern Lebanon were shut down and evacuated.
The Israeli operation followed up on the astounding pager and radio bombings last week, which killed and disabled hundreds of Hezbollah leaders and fighters. When top Hezbollah members gathered in a Beirut suburb on Friday for a planning session in person, the IDF targeted the meeting with a precision airstrike, wiping out much of Hezbollah’s senior military leadership.
Israeli President Herzog said on Monday that “Israel does not seek war,” but has “the right and the duty to defend our people.”
Herzog posted an IDF video showing how Hezbollah stores “thousands and thousands of long-range rockets” in “houses, living rooms, bedrooms, and kitchens.”
“Would you accept this in your or your neighbor’s home? What nation would accept its citizens living under such a threat from its neighbors?” he asked.
“For those who still don’t understand, I want to clarify Israel’s policy – we don’t wait for a threat, we get ahead of it. Anywhere, on any front, at any time. We eliminate senior figures, we eliminate terrorists, we eliminate missiles – and we’re not stopping,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Israeli public on Monday.
“I promised we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north – and that is precisely what we are doing. We are destroying thousands of missiles and rockets aimed at Israeli cities and citizens,” Netanyahu said.
Residents of southern Lebanon, and some parts of Beirut, reported receiving text messages and phone calls from a Lebanese number on Monday morning, warning them to move away from Hezbollah positions. Some also reported hearing radio broadcasts warning them to evacuate.
Lebanese telecom minister Johnny Corm insisted Israel did not breach Lebanon’s networks to deliver these messages. He insisted the Lebanese system is configured to reject all phone calls and messages from Israel.
Lebanese information minister Ziad Makary denounced the evacuation warning messages as a form of “psychological warfare” conducted by Israel. Makary advised Lebanese civilians to ignore the messages.
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