Israel intensifies strikes at Lebanon after taking out Hezbollah leader
Sopuruchi Onwuka, with agency reports
Still pressing on with furious reprisals against the organizations that participated or supported the October 7 terrorist invasion, killing of 1200 citizens and dragging away over 250 hostages from homes in Southern Israel, the country’s defence forces is now hunting and pecking on Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) struck multiple targets in Lebanon on Sunday in continuous hunt for Hezbollah operatives which had in the past one year rained hundreds of rockets into northern Israel in support of HAMAS terrorists.
The Oracle Today reports that the Hezbollah terrorists and affiliates in Syria, Iraq and Yemen are self confessed allies of HAMAS which raided Israel about a year ago, killing, raping and kidnapping residents at their homes.
Leaders of the IDF had paraded security videos of the HAMAS attacks which allegedly showed the terrorists beheading children under the watch of their parents and family members. They are also alleged to have raped women under the watch of family members who were later wiped out.
Death toll on the HAMAS few hours of attack toppled 25000, and hostages in their custody later grew the number as more and more hostage deaths are announced.
With poor media and public relations strategies, Israel has been instead become the global villain for striking back following a well orchestrated media campaign sponsored by rich Islamic nations to sway the narratives against the victims.
Thus, the IDF’s surgical campaigns against tunnel habiting HAMAS in Gaza has enjoyed massive western media coverage with some the of media houses subverting standards and justifying attacks on Israeli civilians yet denouncing Gazan civilian casualties of reprisal strikes.
With over 40,000 said to have died in Gaza and the city reduced to rubbles as HAMAS refused to release hostages alive and instead dragged the Israeli military campaign longer to a year now, Lebanon which hosts Hezbollah is opening a new war theatre.
With hundreds of rockets raining from southern Lebanon and displacing residents of northern Israeli cities, the IDF has since last week shifted its resources to address the Hezbollah threat.
The resulting military fireworks has seen Hezbollah struggling to overwhelm Israeli missile defence system with hundreds of simultaneous rocket fires, while the Israeli air force planes have carried out targeted and impactful strikes at the strongholds of Hezbollah.
The IDF announced that its forces took out yet another senior figure after it killed the group’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a precise strike on Friday.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said the air force had “struck dozens of Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon, including launchers that were aimed toward Israeli territory, structures in which weapons were stored and additional Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure.”
It also said it had killed Nabil Kaouk, a prominent Hezbollah leader, the latest in a string of Israeli strikes that have targeted many of the group’s most senior figures.
Hezbollah has not yet commented on Kaouk’s fate but its supporters have been posting mourning messages for him since Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Israeli navy said it had intercepted a projectile approaching Israel from the area of the Red Sea and another eight projectiles coming from Lebanon had fallen in open areas.
The death of Nasrallah on Friday in Beirut is perceived as huge blow to Tehran’s network of allied groups in the Arab world.
Hezbollah said it would keep fighting Israel and has continued to fire rockets at it, including a salvo on Sunday morning.
Nasrallah’s death capped a traumatic fortnight for Hezbollah, starting with the detonation of thousands of communications devices used by its members. Israel was widely assumed to have carried out that action but has not confirmed or denied it did.
Lebanon’s health ministry said 33 people had been killed in Israeli strikes during Saturday. More than 1,000 people in Lebanon have been killed and more than 6,000 wounded as a result of the Israeli attacks in the past two weeks, the health ministry said earlier. It did not specify how many were civilians and how many were combatants.
The escalation has increased fears the conflict could spin out of control, potentially drawing in Iran as well as the United States, Israel’s closest ally.
In Israel, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant held talks on expanding the offensive, his office said on Saturday.
Hezbollah and Israel have been fighting in parallel with Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas since the Iran-backed Palestinian group’s attack on Israel last Oct. 7.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday Nasrallah’s killing was a necessary, and warned his citizens to prepare for challenging days ahead.
“Nasrallah was not a terrorist, he was the terrorist,” Netanyahu said.
U.S. President Joe Biden described Nasrallah’s death as a measure of justice for what he called his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese, and said the U.S. fully supported Israel’s right to self-defence.
He however noted that “it’s time for a ceasefire.”
Meanwhile, the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was moved to a secure location in Iran after Nasrallah’s killing, according to agency sources.
Khamenei has threatened that Nasrallah’s death would be avenged and his path in fighting Israel would be pursued by other militants.
Tehran called for a U.N. Security Council meeting on Israel’s actions in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region, warning against any attacks on its diplomatic facilities and representatives.
A senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan, was also killed in Friday’s attacks, Iranian media reported.
Nasrallah had said Hezbollah would cease fire only when Israel’s Gaza offensive ends. Hamas and other allies of Hezbollah issued statements mourning his death.
Lebanon’s Information Minister said during a cabinet meeting on Sunday that diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire were still underway.
Lebanon’s top Christian cleric, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, said Nasrallah’s killing had “opened a wound in the heart of the Lebanese”. Rai has previously voiced criticism of the Shi’ite Islamist Hezbollah, accusing it of dragging Lebanon into regional conflicts.
“We offer our personal condolences to the family and community of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” he said in a sermon.
Hezbollah’s arsenal has long been a point of contention in Lebanon, a country with a history of civil conflict. Hezbollah’s Lebanese critics say the group has unilaterally pulled the country into conflicts and undermined the state.
