BREAKING NEWS
Israel launches airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, warning of severe consequences if the militant group doesn’t demilitarize
Date: August 10, 2023
JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – The Israeli military has launched airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, accusing the Iranian-backed militant group of failing to demilitarize its border area. The move comes amid escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, which has warned of "devastating" retaliation.
According to Israeli military sources, multiple airstrikes targeted Hezbollah strongholds and missile storage facilities along the border with Israel, in the towns of Suleima, Jarmaya, and Al-Shabaq. The military claimed the strikes were intended to deter Hezbollah from conducting further attacks and to push the group to disarm its forces along the border.
"We are not looking to escalate, but we are prepared to do whatever it takes to protect our civilians," said Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz. "Hezbollah must understand that its aggressive behavior will be met with a strong Israeli response."
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has vowed to continue its attacks against Israel. The group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, warned Israel of "devastating" retaliation, stating that the military had the capability to cause "massive destruction" in Israeli cities.
"The Israeli army’s aggression is a foolish and reckless gamble," Nasrallah said in a televised address. "They think we will crumble, but they are wrong. We are a powerful and well-armed force, and we will respond with all our might."
The conflict comes as regional tensions continue to escalate. The United States has accused Iran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon, and has imposed tough sanctions on the country in response.
KEY WORDS: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, airstrikes, demilitarization, military confrontation, regional tensions, Middle East, international relations, defense, warfare, national security, Hassan Nasrallah, Benny Gantz, US sanctions, Iran, nuclear weapon, politics, military escalation, Middle East conflict
SECTIONS:
- International News
- Politics
- Defense and Warfare
- Middle East Conflict
- National Security
- Regional Tensions
- International Relations
TOPICS:
- Military Confrontation
- Regional Tensions
- Middle East Conflict
- International Relations
- National Security
- Defense
- Warfare
SUBTOPICS:
- Israel-Hezbollah conflict
- Iranian-backed militias
- Regional power dynamics
- Nuclear weapons program
- Military escalation
- International response
KEY QUOTES:
- "Hezbollah must understand that its aggressive behavior will be met with a strong Israeli response." – Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz
- "The Israeli army’s aggression is a foolish and reckless gamble. We are a powerful and well-armed force, and we will respond with all our might." – Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
Israel is gambling Hezbollah will crumple but it faces a well-armed, angry enemy
View info-news.info by cdnhistorystudent
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Submission statement: An opinion piece written by Jeremy Bowen, who has reported from the Middle East since the 90s for BBC News. Israeli leaders are happy about their overwhelming attacks on Hezbollah so far, but the group is unlikely to stop fighting back. It’s unclear if Israel is willing to risk a ground invasion of Lebanon, which would be very costly and unlikely to put an end to Hezbollah’s rocket attacks.
>A few voices in the Israeli media have compared the impact of the air strikes on Hezbollah’s capacity to wage war to Operation Focus, Israel’s surprise attack on Egypt in June 1967. It was a famous raid that destroyed the Egyptian air force when its aircraft were lined up on the ground. Over the next six days Israel defeated Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The victory created the shape of the current conflict as Israel captured the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.
Talk about counting all your chickens before they hatched. Not only was Egypt an actual state actor i.e with people that had to worry about continuing to exist as a country, the impact was also far more visible to everyone and had an immediate and lasting effect. Hezbollah runs duct tape and prayer-powered missile spam rather than relying on an actual air force. The net effect is far from as clear cut.
The IDF are not strong on the ground, so if they invade as it looks like they are about to then I am expecting pretty significant losses for them. That is, if Hezz have enough soldiers left with fingers.
Fundamentally, Israel is fighting with a conscript immigrant dual-citizen army, full of people just doing their one year and trying not to die.
Getting into multiple prolonged engagements is the best way to make those people go back to their original countries.
Which is exactly whats happening to the Israeli population, economy and military. Israel is full of people with the ***option*** to leave. Lebanon is…not.
>Israel’s leaders are jubilant about the progress of the offensive against Hezbollah that started with the detonation of weaponised pagers and radios and moved on to intense and deadly airstrikes.
>
>Defence Minister Yoav Gallant did not hold back his praise after Monday’s air strikes.
>“Today was a masterpiece… This was the worst week Hezbollah has had since its establishment, and the results speak for themselves.”
>Gallant said airstrikes destroyed thousands of rockets that could have killed Israeli citizens. In the process Lebanon says Israel killed more than 550 of its citizens, including 50 children. That is almost half Lebanon’s dead in a month of war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
>Israel believes that a ferocious offensive will coerce Hezbollah into doing what it wants, inflicting so much pain that its leader Hassan Nasrallah and his allies and backers in Iran decide that the price of resistance is too high.
Hezbollah was formed in response to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in the 1980’s, I honestly don’t see how another invasion would weaken them. At least in the long term, the Israeli army is giving them a reason to exist
Israel’s goal is to make sure that it is clear that Israel will extract a 100x cost on anyone who attempts to harm them. Hence we have the war in Gaza as a response to October 7. The attack on Hezbollah is a response to firing rockets at Israel for almost a year.
The name of the game is *not* victory but deterrence.
I doubt Israel ever expected that
Come on, they are attacking a fucking actual country, not a struggling-to-be one.
And more than that, they are targeting a group that is stronger than said country itself.
Of anyone expected it to be easy, it was a moron with delusions of grandeur
Eh. The most hezbollah can do is shoot a few unguided rockets at some parking lots. They don’t have the ability like Israel does to fly a fighter jet and blow up a building block.