ISRAELI warplanes blitzed Hezbollah targets in Lebanon with pre-emptive airstrikes overnight as the group carried out a revenge attack for the assassination of a senior commander last month.
Hezbollah aimed to fire thousands of rockets towards the north and capital Tel Aviv, Israel claims, but was only able to launch some 320 missiles after IDF strikes thwarted its plans.
ReutersAn explosion in Lebanon last night as Israel launched airstrikes at Hezbollah targets[/caption]
A Hezbollah drone is blitzed by Israel’s Iron Dome Defences this morning
EPAAn Israeli fighter jet ejects flares over an area near the Lebanon-Israel border today[/caption]
Hezbollah is Iran’s largest terror proxy army
The Iran-backed terror proxy group said it “began an air attack with a large number of drones” across the border, followed by “more than 320” Katyusha rockets launched at “enemy positions”.
Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said 100 fighter jets struck over 40 launch areas in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah operations are mostly focused amid civilian populations.
Another IDF spokesperson, Nadav Shoshani, said rockets fired by Hezbollah were “part of a larger attack that was planned” and added “we were able to thwart a big part of it this morning”.
Israel dubbed its pre-emptive strikes aimed mostly at strongholds across southern Lebanon an “act of self-defence”.
The IDF has engaged in tit-for-tat strikes with Hezbollah for 10 months since war broke out in the Gaza Strip.
But last night’s firefight is a major escalation that threatens to trigger an all-out war which could draw in the United States, Iran and militant groups across the region.
Sirens blasted across northern Israel as the army’s advanced Iron Dome Defence system obliterated Hezbollah rockets mid-air.
Hezbollah issued a chilling statement on Sunday saying they had completed the “first phase” of a revenge campaign against Israel.
The terror group, Iran’s largest proxy army in the Middle East, claimed to have hit 11 Israeli military targets.
Flights were axed to and from Israel’s primary Ben Gurion airport as the chaos unfolded – although they have since resumed.
Daniel Hagari said: “We are ready to do everything we need to defend the people of Israel.”
He later revealed that IDF warplanes “attacked and destroyed thousands of Hezbollah’s firing canisters, most most of them aimed towards the north of the country and some also towards central Israel”.
State media in Lebanon said one person was killed in an air strike fired from Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday morning: “We are determined to do everything possible to defend our country, to return the residents of the north safely to their homes and to continue to uphold a simple rule: Whoever harms us – we harm him.”
ReutersSmoke rises from the southern Lebanese town of Khiam today[/caption]