Gallant: Public must show composure, discipline in days ahead

IDF says widespread strikes target ‘infrastructure Hezbollah built up for years’

Lebanese civilians get stark advance warnings via texts and calls to immediately move away from group’s weapons caches; Beirut says 100 killed, hundreds injured

By Emanuel Fabian,
ToI Staff and Agencies 23 September 2024, 12:50 pm Edit
Footage posted to social media shows blasts from an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, on September 23, 2024 (Social media/X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The Israel Defense Forces on Monday morning said it launched “widespread” waves of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, as it warned civilians to swiftly move away from homes used by the Iran-backed terror group to store weapons.

The military said it had identified Hezbollah operatives preparing to carry out rocket attacks on Israel. Later in the day, Hezbollah fired some 35 rockets at northern Israel.

Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 100 people were killed and more than 400 injured. The figures did not differentiate between members of the terror group and civilians.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attended an assessment on the readiness of the home front amid widening fighting, saying, “Ahead of us are days when the public will have to show composure, discipline, and full obedience” to instructions by the Home Front Command.

As of 3 p.m., the Israeli Air Force had struck more than 300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the IDF said.

According to the military, dozens of fighter jets from all of the IAF’s squadrons participated in the strikes.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi (second from left) approves plans for strikes in Lebanon, alongside head of the Operations Division, Brig. Gen. Yisrael Shomer (left), head of the Operations Directorate, Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk (second from right) and the head of the Intelligence Directorate’s research division, Brig. Gen. Ofir Mizrahi Rosen (right), at the IDF’s underground command room at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, September 23, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The official Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) said that the strikes in the eastern Beqaa Valley region killed a “civilian” shepherd, “and wounded two members of his family” and four others.

NNA reported that “enemy warplanes launched… more than 80 airstrikes in half an hour,” targeting south Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh district. It also reported strikes in the Tyre area.

At the same time, the NNA reported “intense raids in the Beqaa” Valley in the east, deep inside Lebanon near the Syrian border, including in the vicinity of Baalbek and the outskirts of Hermel.

AFP correspondents in the south and east reported the sound of heavy strikes.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Marjayoun, near the Lebanon-Israel border, on September 23, 2024 (Rabih DAHER / AFP)

A Hezbollah source, requesting anonymity, said strikes in the Beqaa Valley targeted the area from east to west.

IDF Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said earlier that strikes on houses in Lebanon in which Hezbollah was hiding weapons were “imminent.”

Lebanese civilians were warned to immediately distance themselves from sites used by the Iran-backed terror group to store weapons. The IDF said it sent text messages to residents, as well as phoning them from a Lebanese phone number.

“Hezbollah is lying to you and sacrificing you,” Adraee said in an Arabic message to Lebanese civilians. “Its missiles and drones are more valuable and important to it than you are.”

People in south Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley received text messages with warnings from Israel, Lebanon’s NNA confirmed. Lebanese media reported that the warning messages were also broadcast on radio stations.

Amid the IDF strikes in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah launched two barrages of rockets at northern Israel.

The first barrage of 25 rockets targeted the Safed area, and the second, with 10 rockets, targeted the Lower Galilee.

Many of the rockets were intercepted, according to the IDF, but some impacted causing damage in Givat Avni. A man in his 50s was also lightly injured by shrapnel at the Golani Junction.

Hezbollah took responsibility for the attacks, saying it launched dozens of rockets at army bases near Safed, as well as a facility belonging to the Rafael defense firm near Haifa.

‘Every home we struck, there are rockets, drones, missiles’

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in an afternoon press conference that the military was striking “infrastructure that Hezbollah built up for years.” He said “every home” hit by the Israeli Air Force on Monday was used by Hezbollah to store weapons.

“The sights that are now seen in southern Lebanon are Hezbollah’s weapons exploding inside houses. Every home we struck, there are rockets, drones, missiles, which were intended to kill Israeli civilians,” he said.

Hagari warned civilians in the Beqaa Valley to flee homes where Hezbollah has been storing weapons.

“We are preparing to strike terror targets in the Beqaa Valley soon. Hezbollah stores strategic weapons there, in civilian buildings, and uses the population as a human shield and knowingly puts it in danger,” he said.

He said the residents of the Beqaa Valley can “see the action we are taking in southern Lebanon” today. “Hezbollah intends to launch these weapons towards Israeli territory, and we will not allow it,” Hagari said.

In an Arabic message to residents of Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, said at around 3 p.m. that civilians had two hours to leave before the military launched its airstrikes there.

“If you are inside or near a house containing Hezbollah weapons, you must leave… within two hours to a distance of no less than 1,000 meters outside the village, or go to the central school near you and do not return until further notice,” Adraee said on X.

As the strikes intensified, Lebanon’s Education Minister Abbas Halabi “announced the closure of public and private schools” Monday and Tuesday in Lebanon’s east and south as well as in Beirut’s southern suburbs due to “security and military situations” that “pose a danger to the movement of students,” a statement read.

Violence along the northern border has spiked in recent days, as Hezbollah expanded the range of its rocket fire Sunday, launching some 85 rockets deep into northern Israel in response to last week’s mass detonation of pagers, walkie-talkies, and other devices used by Hezbollah operatives in which dozens were killed and thousands were injured.

The operation, on which Israel hasn’t commented, has been widely attributed to the Jewish state.

Additionally, on Friday, an Israeli strike in Beirut killed top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and other terror leaders.

Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there. Last week, the security cabinet updated its official goals for the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza to include the objective of allowing residents of the north to return safely to their homes after having been displaced by the Hezbollah attacks.

Monday morning saw Hagari show previously unreleased footage of Hezbollah operatives preparing to launch a cruise missile from within a civilian home in a southern Lebanon village. The building was targeted in an airstrike.

The cruise missile was identified by the IDF as a Russian-made “DR-3,” which appeared to be a variant of the Tupolev Tu-143 drone, also called VR-3.

The IDF said the missile was packed with some 300 kilograms of explosives and had a range of up to 200 kilometers.

“Hezbollah puts you and your families in danger. Hezbollah is planning to launch these weapons toward Israel, stay away from them immediately for your own protection,” Hagari told Lebanese civilians.

Hagari said the military was carrying out continuous assessments with regard to guidelines for the Israeli home front, as fighting with Hezbollah escalates.

“If necessary, we will update on any change immediately,” he said.

Hagari also warned that Hezbollah will “attempt in the coming hours to spread rumors and psychological terror.” He asked the public to not spread rumors, and to follow only official updates.

Gallant says war’s success depends on public remaining calm

“In this new stage that we have entered in the war, our success also depends on the proper conduct of the home front. There are days ahead of us when the public will have to remain calm,” Gallant said.

“The resilience of the home front is the key that allows the IDF to fight, to make achievements, and to harm the enemy, and this has been going on for about a year and has been done in a very impressive way,” he said.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at an assessment on the home front’s readiness, September 23, 2024 (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

“We are deepening our attacks in Lebanon. The sequence of operations continues and will continue until we achieve our goal of returning the residents of the north safely to their homes,” he stated.

“The difference between success and failure will depend on citizens entering protected rooms and other areas in accordance with the instructions we give them. This saves lives.”

Gallant also spoke with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and discussed the developing situation in the north.

In a statement, Gallant said he “provided the secretary with a situation assessment of Hezbollah threats and briefed him on IDF operations to degrade Hezbollah’s ability to launch attacks against Israeli civilians.”

“We also discussed the wider regional situation and the threats posed by Iran and its proxies,” Gallant said.

File: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, right, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, left, listen to the playing of the Israeli National Anthem during an arrival ceremony at the Pentagon in Washington, June 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

There was no immediate readout from the US on the call.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid welcomed the IDF’s widespread strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, declaring that “the time has come.”

In a statement, he said he gave his support to the military and called on Israeli forces: “Be strong and courageous and do not fear or worry until all the residents of the north return home safely.”

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