Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah and Iran that the significant airstrikes conducted in Lebanon on Sunday morning are “not the end of the story.”
In remarks to the cabinet, Netanyahu indicated that these strikes “eliminated thousands of short-range rockets designed to target our citizens and military forces in the Galilee region.” He further asserted that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) successfully intercepted all drones launched by Hezbollah that were aimed at a critical area near Tel Aviv, which includes the Mossad headquarters, as reported by state-owned Kan TV.
Prior to dawn, around 100 Israeli warplanes executed bombings on “hundreds of armed launchers and thousands of launcher barrels, primarily directed at northern Israel,” as stated by IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari during a briefing.
Hagari described the operation as a “preemptive attack” intended to neutralize a broader threat. He noted that most rockets and drones launched by Hezbollah were intercepted.
Hezbollah took responsibility for targeting several military sites in northern Israel with 320 rockets, calling it “the first phase” of its retaliation for the assassination of senior official Fouad Shokor in Beirut last month. The group also confirmed drone launches into central Israel, claiming to have caused infrastructure damage.
The IDF denied that any military base was damaged, and no casualties were reported on the Israeli side, except for one woman who sustained light injuries from shrapnel.