IDF pounds Hezbollah sites across Lebanon; 80 rockets, UAVs target northern Israel
South Lebanon strikes said to kill 5 Hezbollah-linked medics; Nahariya factory hit; no injuries reported in fresh attacks; Italy blames terror group after rockets hurt 4 UNIFIL troops
Israeli fighter jets carried out two waves of airstrikes on Lebanon’s coastal city of Tyre, and further sorties on the country’s south and Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut on Friday, as the Israel Defense Forces said some 80 rockets and several drones were launched at northern Israel throughout the day.
The Lebanese health ministry said airstrikes on two villages in southern Lebanon killed five medics from a rescue force affiliated with Hezbollah. AFP reported that an airstrike in Beirut toppled an 11-story building.
The IDF said targets included command centers, intelligence infrastructure, weapon depots and observation posts belonging to Hezbollah. Before the strikes, the IDF issued evacuation warnings to civilians in the area.
Many of the sites belonged to Hezbollah’s Aziz regional division, responsible for rocket fire on Israel from the western sector of southern Lebanon, according to the IDF.
Hezbollah said it had targeted with rockets and artillery Israeli ground troops who had encroached on the southern Lebanese towns of Khiyam and Deir Mimas, respectively located some 6 kilometers (4 miles) and 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) north of the border with Israel.
“Enemy reconnaissance aircraft” were flying over Deir Mimas, which has been largely emptied of residents, warning people “not to leave their homes,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported, adding that it was the first time Israeli troops had reached the village.
In the latest attacks on northern Israel on Friday evening, the IDF Home Front Command said a drone from Lebanon exploded in the Western Galilee area, without causing any injuries.
Drone infiltration warning sirens sounded for around half an hour in northern communities including Nahariya, Acre and the Krayot area north of Haifa amid the incident.
Earlier, the IDF said that air defenses shot down some of the barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon at the Western Galilee and Haifa areas, while others impacted.
Police said a factory in Nahariya was damaged by a rocket. Footage posted to social media showed smoke rising from an industrial area, along with interceptions over the northern coastal city.
The barrage came as the IDF said it had shot down two drones from Lebanon before they entered Israeli airspace in the afternoon, and five projectiles from Lebanon set off sirens in Haifa overnight before being intercepted.
There were no reports of injuries in the latest attacks from Lebanon, which came as Israeli and American officials expressed optimism about securing a ceasefire with Hezbollah to end the cross-border hostilities raging since the day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre that sparked the war in Gaza.
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The White House said Friday evening that United States President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed efforts to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon during a phone call earlier in the day.
On Friday afternoon, Channel 12 published details on what it said were the remaining points of contention between Israel and Hezbollah to reach a ceasefire in the north.
One issue, according to the report, was Israel’s insistence that France can not be part of the agreement, or be a member of the international committee that will monitor a deal’s implementation. This is due to its perceived hostility toward Israel in recent months under Macron’s administration. Macron has recently repeatedly called for an arms embargo on Israel, characterizing it as the path toward ending the war, sparking a diplomatic crisis.
The second issue cited in the report was 13 land points along the Israel-Lebanon border that are disputed due to boundary demarcation issues. The network said Israel was demanding language in the agreement that would allow it to unilaterally choose not to engage in negotiations over disputed points.
Channel 12 reported that Lebanon had accepted that the US would issue a letter that supports Israel’s freedom to act in Lebanon against “imminent threats,” but that final wording on the issue of arms transfers within Lebanon had not been finalized.
A senior official told Channel 12: “Most of the details have been agreed upon, but what remains open is very sensitive and could still derail the agreement.”
The report came after Washington’s envoy Amos Hochstein discussed the ceasefire with senior Lebanese, Hezbollah and Israeli officials over the past week, touting progress in the talks. A senior Israeli defense official also said there was a high likelihood of a deal.
IDF finds Russian-made anti-tank missiles at Hezbollah post
In southern Lebanon’s eastern sector, meanwhile, troops of the 7th Armored Brigade found several Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles in a Hezbollah anti-tank missile launching post they had discovered after an operative had been killed there in a recent airstrike, the IDF said on Friday.
The brigade, operating under the 98th Division, has been raiding what the army calls “an area that serves as a significant terror stronghold for Hezbollah.”
Troops have located several Hezbollah fighting positions, weapon depots, bunkers and other infrastructure amid the ongoing operation, the army said.
Over the past week, the military said it had destroyed some 45 Hezbollah rocket launchers in airstrikes in southern Lebanon. According to the IDF, some of the launchers were used in previous rocket attacks on Israel, and others were primed for future attacks.
Meanwhile, four Italian troops were lightly hurt in an apparent Hezbollah rocket barrage on the UN observer mission in Lebanon, Rome said on Friday, as Israel’s ground troops pushed on in southern Lebanon.
Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said four Italian soldiers in UNIFIL, the international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, “were slightly injured following the explosion of two 122 mm rockets that hit the UNP 2-3 base in Chamaa,” a southwestern Lebanese village some seven kilometers (4.3 miles) north of the Israeli border.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed “deep indignation and concern” over the incident, without attributing blame, though European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the UNIFIL observers were “wounded following the launch of two rockets by Hezbollah.”
“I will try to speak with the new Israeli minister of defense, which has been impossible since he took office, to ask him to avoid using UNIFIL bases as a shield,” he said.
“Even more intolerable is the presence of terrorists in South Lebanon who are endangering the safety of the blue helmets and the civilian population,” he added.
Some European allies, including France and Italy, have accused Israel of targeting UNIFIL, and rejected Jerusalem’s demand that the peacekeeping force vacate its positions while the IDF pursues Hezbollah.
Israel has accused UNIFIL of failing to prevent Hezbollah from building terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon, forcing Israel to act.
Israel invaded Lebanon in late September to stem the relentless Hezbollah rocket fire that has prevented some 60,000 northern residents from returning home.
Fearing a Hezbollah invasion of the north, Israel evacuated the residents soon after thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Starting the next day, 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.
Hezbollah has since expanded its attacks to also target cities in central and northern Israel with rockets, in addition to the attacks on the border, though in recent days the IDF has seen a decrease in the number of attacks.
The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 44 civilians. In addition, 71 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September. Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
The IDF estimates that some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
