The IDF struck targets in Lebanon shortly before the group attacked Israel to avenge the death of its top commander
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Israel’s preemptive strike on Hezbollah launch sites in southern Lebanon on Sunday is “not the end of the story,” and vowed more “surprising blows.”
The Israeli military has said it carried out preemptive strikes against the Lebanon-based militia after concluding that an attack by Hezbollah was imminent. Around 100 Israeli Air Force fighter jets, directed by IDF intelligence, reportedly destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon.
The Islamic paramilitary group subsequently fired hundreds of rockets at Israel to avenge the death of its top commander, Fouad Shukr, who was killed in an airstrike on Beirut last month.
“What happened today is not the end of the story,” Netanyahu told a government meeting on Sunday.
“We are striking Hezbollah with surprising crushing blows. Three weeks ago, we eliminated its chief of staff [Fuad Shukr], and today we thwarted its attack plan,” he stated.
Multiple media reports indicated that US intelligence had helped thwart the Hezbollah attack, but Washington was not directly involved in the Israeli operation.
