The war in the Middle East has continued to worsen as the Israeli forces on Wednesday said it’s carrying out “offensive action” across southern Lebanon.
Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant confirmed the attack in a statement without specifying whether ground troops had crossed the border.
Gallant said the move was a territorial marking, as Hezbollah a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group “had established dozens of terror means and infrastructures in the area” to attack Israel.
Advertisement
He also attributed its retaliation to an earlier rocket strike by the Hezbollah, who accused Israel of the death of two civilians on Tuesday.
Hezbollah had already fired rockets at northern Israel late on Tuesday in response to the civilian deaths.
In retaliation, Gallant said, “Many forces are deployed on the border and IDF (army) forces are carrying out offensive action currently throughout southern Lebanon.
“Half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated and the other half are in hiding and abandoning the field to IDF operations.”
Revealing the mode of attack, the Israeli army in a separate statement said it had struck 40 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
“A short while ago, IDF (army) fighter jets and artillery struck approximately 40 Hezbollah terror targets” around Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, including storage facilities and weaponry,” the statement said.
Reacting to Israel’s attack, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israel had carried out more than 13 strikes near Aita al-Shaab and surrounding villages.
“Israeli warplanes carried out more than 13 airstrikes targeting the outskirts of the towns of Aita al-Shaab, Ramya, Jabal Balat and Khallet Warda.”.
Cross-border exchanges of fire have flared between the Israeli army and Iran-backed Hezbollah since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.