On Tuesday, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi warned Hezbollah that it will “pay a very high price” for its continuing attacks on northern Israel, as the terror group fired a new barrage of missiles at the Western Galilee while the army’s top general was touring the area.
The salvo of rockets occurred hours after Hezbollah launched dozens of missiles at a critical military station in northern Israel, as the terror group escalated operations in reaction to strikes deep within Lebanon the day before.
“On October 7th, in the evening, Hezbollah chose to participate. “For that, it must pay a very high price,” Halevi stated during an evaluation in northern Israel with Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, chief of the Northern Command, and Brig. Gen. Yisrael Shomer, commander of the 146th Division.
Halevi stated that the IDF was “taking the right steps” to allow about 80,000 displaced Israelis from Lebanon border villages to return to their homes. He said that as a result of the IDF’s activities, “Hezbollah is no longer close to the fence.”
“I believe that if we do the right thing, the locals will return first and foremost because of the security. The state will know how to make an attempt to bring the people back with security and a better quality of life,” he added.
According to the IDF, Lebanon launched a barrage of around 20 rockets toward the Western Galilee on Tuesday afternoon, with Hezbollah claiming to have targeted the 146th Division’s base, which is responsible for the region Halevi visited.
Hezbollah was unlikely to be aware that the army chief was inspecting the region when it conducted its attack on the facility, given the visit was only made public hours later, and the terror group made no reference of Halevi in its pronouncements.
Rockets collided with automobiles on a highway in northern Israel, according to video footage released on social media.
The video shows a group of individuals traveling down Route 89 in Western Galilee when missiles blasted into the road just a few hundred meters ahead of them.
The bombardment triggered alarms in Manot, Admit, Avdon, Yaara, Arab al-Aramshe, Hanita, Eilon, Goren, Neveh Ziv, Klil, Abu Snan, Yarka, and Amka.
The Iron Dome air defense system stopped missiles that were aimed at populous areas.
There were no reported injuries.
In the midst of the escalation, the US State Department stated on Tuesday that the US does not want tensions between Israel and Hezbollah to escalate further, and that Israel has convinced Washington that it seeks a diplomatic solution to the matter.
Speaking at a daily press conference, department spokesperson Matthew Miller said tens of thousands of Israelis in the north faced a serious security concern that needed to be addressed, and Washington was using a diplomatic approach to settle the situation.
“We do not want to see either side escalate the conflict in the north and in fact,” Miller was quoted as saying.
On Tuesday morning, Hezbollah launched a barrage of approximately 35 rockets at northern Israel, claiming to be an attack on an air traffic control base atop Mount Meron, in response to Israeli airstrikes on Monday near northeast Lebanon’s Baalbek, the deepest confirmed attacks in years, which killed two terror group members.
The IDF claimed the morning strike did not inflict any damage to the base, which is around eight kilometers (5 miles) from the Lebanon border.
Later in the day, Hezbollah again struck the air traffic control facility. In a statement, the terror organization stated that it fired anti-tank missiles against the facility approximately 3:45 p.m., causing damage.
In the late hours, the IDF admitted that a missile had impacted the base but stated that “there was no damage to the site’s capabilities.”
Hezbollah has targeted the Mount Meron air traffic control facility multiple times throughout the ongoing war, causing minor damage in one of the strikes.
On Tuesday evening, the IDF said that it was targeting Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in reaction to the missile attack and the bombardment of 20 rockets on the Western Galilee.
The recent clashes between Israel and the Iran-backed terror organization constituted a substantial escalation of bloodshed in the already volatile northern border region, igniting new war concerns after months of slowly growing tensions that had been mostly contained.
Hezbollah had earlier replied to the Israeli assault in Baalbek with a barrage of 60 Katyusha rockets launched from the Golan Heights on Monday afternoon. There were no reports of damage or injuries from the attack.
Earlier Monday, Hezbollah used a surface-to-air missile to shoot down an Israeli Air Force drone, an Elbit Hermes 450 type, over the Nabatieh area in southern Lebanon. The IAF uses drones for both surveillance and assault.
In reaction to the incident on Monday, the IDF claimed it launched attacks against Hezbollah’s air defense installation near Baalbek, around 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the border.
In addition to the extraordinary strikes in Baalbek, the IDF said it killed Hassan Hussein Salami, a prominent Hezbollah leader, in an attack in southern Lebanon on Monday.
Salami, a brigade commander, was ambushed while driving through Majadel, a community in southern Lebanon. According to the IDF, Salami led a regional Hezbollah organization that carried out operations on IDF troops and Israeli villages in northern Israel.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led fighters have assaulted Israeli villages and military sites along the border almost daily, claiming to be doing so to help Gaza during the war.
So far, the border clashes have killed six Israeli civilians and 10 IDF troops and reservists. There have also been other strikes from Syria, with no casualties.
Hezbollah has listed 219 members killed by Israel during the ongoing battles, the most of them were in Lebanon but some in Syria. In Lebanon, 34 additional terror organization operatives, a Lebanese soldier, and more than 30 civilians, three of whom were journalists, were slain.
Israel has warned that it will no longer accept Hezbollah’s presence at the Lebanon border, where it may seek to carry out an attack comparable to Hamas’ slaughter in the south on October 7.
According to Israel, if international diplomacy fails to pull Hezbollah away from the border, the government will launch an attack.
This article was created using automation technology and was thoroughly edited and fact-checked by one of our editorial staff members