IDF hits Hezbollah military facility in Syria, strikes ‘ceasefire violations’ in Lebanon
Army says Hezbollah continues to try bring weapons into Lebanon via civilian border crossings, vows to punish any truce violations; drone said to fire at car heading toward troops
Israeli Air Force fighter jets on Saturday struck infrastructure in Syria near the country’s border crossings with Lebanon, which the IDF said were being “actively” used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons. The developments continued to test the fragile days-old ceasefire.
The IDF also carried out several strikes in Lebanon, targeting threats it said violated the ceasefire agreement.
The strike in Syria “was carried out following the identification of the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah from Syria to Lebanon, even after the ceasefire agreement, and constitutes a threat to the State of Israel, in violation of the terms of the ceasefire agreement,” the military said in a statement.
Syria’s Sham FM radio reported that the strikes targeted the al-Qusayr area. No further details were given and the IDF did not specify what kind of military installation was hit.
There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities or activists monitoring the conflict in that country. Hezbollah also did not immediately comment.
The IDF also accused Hezbollah, with the support of the Syrian regime, of using civilian border crossings to continue trying to bring weapons into Lebanon. Israel has vowed to prevent all weapon transfers to Hezbollah amid the ceasefire.
“The IDF will continue to act to remove any threat to the State of Israel that violates the terms of the ceasefire agreement,” the military added.
The Israeli strike inside Syria came as unrest spread across that country, with Syrian insurgents breaching the country’s largest city, Aleppo, in a shock offensive that added fresh uncertainty to a region reeling from multiple wars.
The repeated bursts of violence — with no reports of serious casualties — reflected the uneasy nature of the ceasefire that otherwise appeared to hold. While Israel has accused Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire, Lebanon has also accused Israel of the same in the days since it took effect.
In southern Lebanon on Saturday, the military said it identified a group of gunmen as they loaded a car up with RPGs, ammunition boxes and other military equipment. A drone then targeted the vehicle.
In another incident, a group of Hezbollah operatives were spotted at a building in southern Lebanon previously known to have been in use by the terror group. The IDF said troops struck the operatives and later, upon reaching the site, found numerous weapons.
Saturday also saw IAF fighter jets strike a Hezbollah facility near Sidon upon identifying activity there. According to the military, the site was used to store rocket launchers.
Separately, the IDF said it carried out a drone strike “deep within Lebanon” against a vehicle that was operating at a Hezbollah missile manufacturing facility.
צה"ל פעל במהלך היום בעקבות מספר פעולות בלבנון שהיוו איום על מדינת ישראל, תוך הפרת הבנות הסכם הפסקת האש>> pic.twitter.com/kEZIGGsFwm
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 30, 2024
Also Saturday, the IDF said it located a cache of weapons belonging to Hezbollah hidden inside a mosque during scans in southern Lebanon.
במהלך סריקות של כוחות צה״ל במרחב דרום לבנון ביממה האחרונה, הלוחמים איתרו אמצעי לחימה שהוסתרו במסגד ששימש מחבלי חיזבאללה, והחרימו אותם.
בנוסף, במהלך היממה האחרונה כוחות צה"ל פעלו להרחקת חשודים ממרחב דרום לבנון.
צה״ל פרוס במרחב דרום לבנון ויאכוף כל הפרה של הסכם הפסקת האש pic.twitter.com/6UL3b9CLei
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 30, 2024
Troops also dispersed suspects who approached a no-go zone in southern Lebanon, the IDF said, without giving details.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli drone attacked a car in the southern village of Majdal Zoun. Majdal Zoun, near the Mediterranean Sea, is close to where Israeli troops still have a presence. Lebanon’s health ministry said the strike wounded three people, including a child.
Many Lebanese, some of the 1.2 million displaced in the conflict, have been streaming south to their homes, despite warnings by the Israeli and Lebanese militaries to stay away from certain areas in the south.
The truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, brokered by the United States and France, calls for an initial two-month ceasefire in which the terror group is to withdraw north of Lebanon’s Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border.
The US military’s CENTCOM announced late Friday that Major General Jasper Jeffers, Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT), would oversee the implementation and monitoring mechanism of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, alongside his co-chair, US Mideast envoy Amos Hochstein, who will fill the role until a permanent civilian US official is named.
Jeffers arrived in Beirut in recent days to oversee the implementation, the announcement said, adding that the oversight mechanism will be led by the US and include the Lebanese and Israeli militaries, UN observers and France.
Israel says it reserves the right under the ceasefire to strike against any perceived violations.
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 the 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 and Hamas are both avowedly committed to destroying Israel.
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.
The IDF said 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.
Images showed Hezbollah holding large funeral ceremonies Friday for dozens of their fighters killed over the past two months.
According to 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.
