Israel Trains Reservists for Military Operations in the North as Iran-Backed Hezbollah Terror Group Intensifies Attacks
IDF: “The soldiers are training for a range of circumstances, including daytime and nighttime combat, as well as urban and rural warfare.”
Israel is training reservists for possible military operations against Hezbollah as Iran-sponsored terrorist group intensifies attacks in the north of the country.
The training exercise named “Valuable Time” is geared at drilling thousands of regular and newly called-up soldiers to prepare for a war-like scenario on Israel’s northern border with terrorist-controlled southern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed on Saturday.
Since the October 7 terror attacks the “IDF soldiers in mandatory and reserve duty have been conducting training exercises to increase readiness for various operational scenarios on the northern border,” the Israeli military disclosed in a statement on Saturday. “The soldiers are training for a range of circumstances, including daytime and nighttime combat, as well as urban and rural warfare. They are undergoing operational artillery training and receiving certification to operate various types of weapons.”
Israel has mobilized close to 400,000 reservists as the Jewish State responds to Hamas’s October 7 massacre and bolsters military presence in north to counter the terror threat from Hezbollah, the most heavily-armed terrorist organization in the world.
Meanwhile, the IDF is responding to Hezbollah’s ongoing aggression. “Over the last few hours, a number of launches from Lebanon toward Israel were identified. The IDF responded with artillery toward Lebanon,” the IDF announced on Saturday afternoon. “In addition, a short while ago, IAF fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah targets, including military compounds, launch posts, and terror infrastructure.”
For the first time since Israel launched the military operation in Gaza following the October 7 massacre, Hamas fired rockets capable of reaching Jerusalem. “Multiple rockets were intercepted over Jerusalem on Friday as sirens blared across the city for the first time since October,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported. “At least six rockets were launched towards Jerusalem according to the Israeli military, with three intercepted. The military said the other rockets landed away from populated zones.
Hamas terrorists have no regard for human lives, or even their own civilians & religion. In their pursuit of murdering Israelis and firing rockets at Jerusalem they are endangering one of the most holy sites for Islam- the Al-Aqsa Mosque. pic.twitter.com/mFEG8amOmS
— Tammy Ben-Haim (@tammybenhaim) December 16, 2023
U.S., UK navies shoot down Houthi drones in Red Sea
The U.S. and British navies, operating in the Red Sea as part of an international task force to secure maritime trade, reportedly shot down multiple attack drones launched from territory of Yemen controlled by Iran-backed Houthi terrorist group.
The Yemen-based Houthis have carried out a series of attacks on cargo ships, including hijacking of an Israel-linked vessel. The terrorist group declared Israeli commercial ships legitimate targets after Israel responded to the October 7 massacre with an anti-terrorist operation in Gaza.
The Jerusalem Post reported:
A US guided-missile destroyer also shot down 14 drones launched by Yemen’s Houthis in the Red Sea on Saturday, the US Central Command said in a statement.
“In the early morning hours of December 16 (Sanna time) the US Arliegh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS CARNEY (DDG 64), operating in the Red Sea, successfully engaged 14 unmanned aerial systems launched as a drone wave from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen,” read the statement.
“The UAS were assessed to be one-way attack drones and were shot down with no damage to ships in the area or reported injuries. Regional Red Sea partners were alerted to the threat.”
The London-based newspaper the Telegraph reported a similar incident involving a British destroyer:
A British destroyer shot down a suspected attack drone in the Red Sea on Saturday, the Defence Secretary said.
The incident is believed to be the first time the Royal Navy has shot down an aerial target in anger since the First Gulf War in 1991.
Grant Shapps said it was believed the drone was targeting merchant shipping, in the latest such incident in the key global shipping route.
The Red Sea lies between north Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and connects the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal.
The HMS Diamond, the Type 45 destroyer that shot down the suspected drone, was sent to the region two weeks ago amid growing international concern about the threat to shipping.
Houthi attacks on high seas threaten to cripple maritime trade
Iran-backed attacks in the Red Sea are threatening to cripple international trade. Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, two of the world’s largest container shipping companies, have suspended their operations in the region following the maritime terror attacks.
“The recent attacks led Maersk, the world’s biggest shipping company, to announce Friday that it’s told all of its vessels planning to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to ‘pause their journey until further notice.’ German-based shipper Hapag-Lloyd that was operating the Al Jasrah also said it was pausing all its container ship traffic through the Red Sea until Monday,” the state-owned France24 TV channel reported Friday.
“Global shipping has become a target during the war between Israel and Hamas, which like the Houthis is backed by Iran. The Houthis have launched a series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, as well as launching drones and missiles targeting Israel,” the Associated Press noted. “Houthi rebels said they fired a barrage of drones Saturday toward the port city of Eilat in southern Israel.”
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When will we or Israel stop pussyfooting and start making life in Iran interesting? JR, aka Thad Jarvis need not reply. Maybe we can make Iran a cooperative venture, one country take out their water revivors, another take out their electrical grid, one taking out their petroleum infrastructure, and so on, where within a week or two Iran is a stone age civilization. Then keep them there.
Probably when Iran launches a full missile assault on Israel.
No big surprise here.. the IDF is rotating in more reserve troops in places to pull active troops for Gaza. And the occupation.
After that, deport belligerent Pales from all over the world to what might be left of Iran. Maybe in another 1400 years they might be civilized,
In a perverse way, it would be no tragedy for Al-Aqsa to be vaporized by Islamists.
Yeah! and CNN would be the first to report that it was an Israeli rocket gone awry.
Considering that there is a clear pattern of using Mosques for war, destroy all of them in Palestine.
Would be interesting if a Hezbollah attack destroyed the Mosque and in clearing the debris the ruins of Solomon’s temple were discovered and exposed.
The media here are broadcasting the hostage deaths as another excuse for ending the war immediately! They really want this war over with so Hamas isn’t totally destroyed.
Funny how the media isn’t so insistent on the Ukraine war ending just as quickly eh.
It galls me that the U.S. as led by the vile Dhimmi-crats is utterly useless in Israel’s existential struggle against genocidal Muslim supremacists, terrorists and Islamofascists and their uniquely evil brand of sadistic barbarism.
The Dhimmi-crats are not only giving rhetorical, financial and diplomatic succor and deference to Muslim terrorist outfits and their state sponsors in Iran and Qatar, they are actively undermining and hindering Israel’s operations. Utterly wicked and despicable behavior, by the evil and vile Dhimmi-crats.
Hezbullah wants its turn at running Gaza.
Gazans are dumb enough to fall for it, willfully sending their sons and daughters off to die. Gazans may deserve far more retroactive abortions.
I think Hezbollah is biding their time for all out war with Israel. Right now they do an occasional test firing of a missile to improve their targeting for the war to come, while they prepare fortifications and get ready for the big assault.
Egypt’s commercial shipping revenue is in jeopardy now. Shipping will be significantly reduced through the Suez Canal as a result of the Houthis actions. Every shipping company is concerned about the safety situation in the canal zone and are actively making plans to change trade routes.
What did Egypt done to harm Yemen? Nothing that I have read about. The US should send waves of cruise missiles to destroy major Houthi facilities, including ports, airports, power plants, and reservoirs of oil tanks. Any terrorist group or sponsoring country who imperils peaceful international shipping lanes needs to be given an unmistakable message.