Israel hits Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in what it’s calling a preemptive strike

Up to date August 25, 2024 at 12:55 PM ET

The Israeli navy stated early on Sunday that it had launched a sequence of preemptive strikes towards Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon based mostly on intelligence it says indicated that the militant group was planning an assault.

Israel Protection Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a video on X that the navy acted in “self protection” to “take away these threats.”

Hezbollah stated it was in a position to launch rockets and drones towards Israel on Sunday, which the group stated was in response to the killing of one in all its prime commanders in July. The IDF said Sunday that the group had launched “over 150 projectiles” towards Israel.

U.S. Nationwide Safety Council spokesperson Sean Savett stated President Biden was “intently monitoring occasions in Israel and Lebanon.”

The most recent wave of assaults come as Egypt hosts a brand new spherical of ceasefire talks aimed toward getting Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas nearer to a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza, after nearly 11 months of combating between the 2 sides following the shock assault towards Israel on Oct. 7.

Talks had been set to renew on Sunday after Israel and worldwide mediators — together with the U.S. — despatched delegations to Cairo.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Israel’s strikes towards Hezbollah on Sunday weren’t “the top of the story,” the Occasions of Israel reported. He made the feedback throughout his weekly cupboard assembly.

Netanyahu stated he wished Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah — in addition to Iranian Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — to know that the operation was “one other step on the trail to altering the scenario within the north and returning our residents safely to their properties.”

Additionally on Sunday, Nasrallah stated in a public tackle that Hezbollah delayed its retaliatory assault towards Israel due to latest Israeli and U.S. navy mobilization within the space, the Guardian reported.

Nasrallah stated the group was concentrating on an Israeli navy intelligence base exterior Tel Aviv — not civilian infrastructure — and that it started its assault a half hour after Israel’s preemptive strikes began.

Three individuals had been killed within the strikes in Lebanon, the well being ministry stated. The IDF introduced that an Israeli soldier on a Navy vessel was killed and two others had been wounded throughout the assault, in response to the Occasions of Israel.

The IDF said it struck greater than 40 Hezbollah targets and that Israeli fighter jets destroyed “hundreds of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels, aimed for speedy fireplace towards northern and central Israel.”

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