Amid growing fears of a full-scale war in Lebanon, Israel has unveiled the name of its ongoing military operation against Hezbollah: ‘Northern Arrows’. On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unleashed a barrage of over 1,600 airstrikes against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group based in Lebanon. The IDF declared these strikes as pre-emptive measures, targeting sites poised to launch missiles, rockets, and drones into Israel. Following alleged Israeli attacks on Hezbollah’s handheld communication devices, the conflict between the two entities has intensified, marked by an escalating exchange of fire, fueling anxieties about a full-scale war. The Monday strikes marked the sixth round of Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in recent days.
The Lebanese Health Ministry reported 492 fatalities and 1,645 injuries in the strikes, but did not specify the breakdown between civilian casualties and Hezbollah operatives.
This ongoing Israeli operation against Hezbollah, dubbed ‘Northern Arrows,’ stands as the most extensive since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, as reported by The Jerusalem Post. Earlier, the newspaper had noted that Monday’s strikes represented the farthest geographical reach in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict over the past year. Since the October 7 attack, Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in near-daily clashes. Thousands of Israeli civilians have been displaced from the northern part of the country, situated along the border with Lebanon, due to the ongoing fighting. In recent days, the conflict has escalated, raising alarm bells about a potential all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.
In a statement, the IDF asserted that it targeted approximately 1,600 sites on Monday, utilizing long-range cruise missiles, heavy-weight rockets, and drones that were “intended to inflict significant damage across all areas of Israel”.
Over the past 24 hours, hundreds of Israeli Air Force fighter jets have carried out strikes against approximately 1,600 Hezbollah terrorist targets in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley in the heart of Lebanon, in multiple waves of attacks.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant claimed that the six rounds of airstrikes in recent days have destroyed tens of thousands of Hezbollah rockets. He labeled Monday’s strikes “a significant peak” in the operation, proclaiming it the “most challenging week for Hezbollah” to date. “Entire units were taken out of the battle as a result of the operations at the start of the week, which resulted in numerous terrorist casualties,” said Gallant, further emphasizing that the terrorist group’s elite Radwan force suffered a “devastating blow”. This statement alluded to the death of Radwan chief Ibrahim Aqil, who was killed in an Israeli strike last week.
Despite Israel’s relentless onslaught on Hezbollah, the terrorist group launched over 200 rockets into Israel throughout Monday, according to The Post.
Ahead of the second wave of strikes against Hezbollah sites on Monday, the IDF accused the terrorist group of using civilian settlements to station its weapons for use against Israel. In a statement on Monday, IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari urged Lebanese civilians to “move out of harm’s way for their own safety” and vacate Hezbollah’s strongholds in southern Lebanon. “There are dozens of Lebanese villages situated along approximately 80 kilometers of the border with Israel. For over 20 years, Hezbollah has deployed its arms inside homes and militarized civilian infrastructure. As a result, the Hezbollah terrorist organization has transformed southern Lebanon into a battlefield,” explained Hagari.
IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari exposed Hezbollah’s tactics of firing missiles from civilian homes, and outlined the IDF’s strategy for dismantling these operations: pic.twitter.com/smkfjv6VDh
