As fresh truce holds, IDF says over 12,500 Hezbollah targets hit in 14 months of war
Military publishes data after fragile Lebanon ceasefire takes effect; some 25,000 weapons seized, 2,500-3,500 Hezbollah operatives killed; IDF also says it killed 14 top terrorists
As the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to hold on Friday, the Israeli military on Friday morning published a summary of its activities against the Lebanon-based terror group over the past 14 months of war.
According to IDF data, Israeli forces struck over 12,500 Hezbollah targets, including 1,600 command centers and 1,000 weapons depots since the terror group began its near-daily attacks on Israeli communities and military posts along the border on October 8, 2023.
The military said that 14 DF brigade-level task forces participated in the ground offensive launched in September, and separately, over 100 special operations were carried out.
The IDF added that it had confirmed with high confidence the deaths of 2,500 Hezbollah operatives, though it estimated that number to be closer to 3,500. Around 100 members of other terror groups have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
According to unverified data published by the Lebanese health ministry, 3,823 people have been killed in Israeli actions since October 8, 2023, a figure that does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Sources close to Hezbollah say the terror group believes the number of its fighters killed by Israel in the last year could be as high as 4,000, the vast majority of them during the last two months of intensified fighting. The sources cited previously unreported internal estimates.
The figure could also point to a relatively low toll for noncombatants killed in the fighting, in stark contrast to the high civilian toll claimed in Gaza.
Among the dead are Hezbollah’s former longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and 13 members of the terror group’s top leadership.
Also among the dead are four Hezbollah commanders at the division level, 24 brigade-level commanders, 27 battalion-level commanders, 63 company-level commanders, and 22 platoon-level commanders.
The IDF also said it has captured some 12,000 explosive devices and drones during the conflict; 13,000 rockets, launchers, and anti-tank and anti-aircraft missile systems; and 121,000 pieces of communications equipment and computers.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday halted 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which began when the Iran-backed terror group, unprovoked, began firing into Israel on October 8, 2023, saying it was acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The relentless attacks forced the displacement of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before Israel ramped up its operations in Lebanon in mid-September, eventually launching a ground operation into Lebanese territory, that dismantled much of the terror group’s infrastructure throughout southern Lebanon.
The offensive was launched with the aim of securing the return home of 60,000 people evacuated from homes in the north of Israel due to the Hezbollah attacks and concerns it would carry out an invasion similar to the Hamas onslaught from the Gaza Strip on southern Israel. In that attack, 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages to Gaza.
Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel since October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 45 civilians. In addition, 76 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes, attacks on Israel, and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
On the Israeli side, nearly 3,000 homes and buildings in Israel were damaged by Hezbollah attacks over the same period, according to an Army Radio report on Thursday citing official figures.
The tally of 2,874 structures cited in the report included 841 that will need to be completely rebuilt. In Kiryat Shmona alone, 382 buildings suffered damage, while nearby Kibbutz Manara and the Western Galilee towns of Nahariya and Shlomi also took significant hits.
Israeli authorities have previously estimated property damage to stand at a minimum of NIS 1 billion ($273 million).
About 55,000 acres of forestry, nature reserves, parks and open lands in northern Israel and the Golan Heights have been burnt down since the start of the war, according to authorities.
The ceasefire has continued to hold firm despite a number of incidents that both Israel and Hezbollah have said violated the terms of the agreement, although some in Israel’s security establishment estimate the chances of a resumption of the war in Lebanon at 50 percent, according to the Ynet news site.
The report said that this is one of the reasons the government is yet to call on the tens of thousands of displaced residents of the north to return to their homes.
“The more the rules and their enforcement are clear from the get-go, the better they will hold up later,” the outlet quoted an unnamed IDF officer as saying.
The truce, brokered by the United States and France, includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah terrorists are to withdraw north of the Litani River, about 20 kilometers from the boundary between Israel and Lebanon, and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said on Thursday that Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as the IDF withdraws. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Over 1.4 million people — nearly a quarter of Lebanon’s population — are internally displaced within the country or have fled to neighboring countries, according to recent figures published by the UN quoting Lebanese government data.
Thousands of displaced Lebanese civilians began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from both the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas, urging them to wait until Israeli troops withdraw over the coming weeks.
On Friday morning, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee warned Lebanese residents that they are prohibited from moving south to a line of villages and their surroundings until further notice
????بيان #عاجل إلى سكان #لبنان
⭕️حتى إشعار آخر يحظر عليكم الانتقال جنوبًا إلى خط القرى التالية ومحيطها: شبعا، الهبارية، مرجعيون، أرنون، يحمر، القنطرة، شقرا، برعشيت، ياطر، المنصوري
⭕️جيش الدفاع لا ينوي استهدافكم ولذلك يحظر عليكم في هذه المرحلة العودة إلى بيوتكم من هذا الخط جنوبًا… pic.twitter.com/84UdCZDRxs
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 29, 2024
“Anyone who moves south of this line puts themselves in danger,” Adraee said in a post on X. “The IDF does not intend to target you, and therefore you are prohibited at this stage from returning to your homes until further notice.”
