Ahead of the Biden administration-backed ceasefire, which came into effect Wednesday morning, Israel conducted waves of airstrikes aimed at destroying Hezbollah terrorist targets across Lebanon.
On Tuesday night, Israeli fighter jets struck an underground missile and drone manufacturing facility near the Lebanon-Syria border. “Overnight before the ceasefire, the Israeli Air Force struck dozens of Hezbollah targets across Lebanon,” The Times of Israel reported Wednesday. “One of the strikes overnight in the Beqaa Valley, close to the Syrian border, targeted an underground Hezbollah precision-guided missile manufacturing and storage site.”
“Several waves of strikes, targeting some 330 Hezbollah sites, were carried out yesterday and into the night, right up until the ceasefire took effect at 4 a.m,” the news website added.
The site was being “used to manufacture and store hundreds of UAVs and cruise missiles of various types intended to be used in attacks on Israel and were systematically concealed within civilian villages and buildings,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement Wednesday.
The facility belonged to Hezbollah’s Aerial Unit (127). “The unit, established under Iranian leadership, received UAVs, cruise missiles, and production components from Iran, alongside training for its operatives,” the IDF noted. “The Aerial Unit is responsible for numerous aerial terror attacks using UAVs that targeted Israel’s home front.”
During Israel’s ‘Northern Arrows’ military operation, which began in early October, “70% of the [Hezbollah’ Aerial] unit’s stockpile of UAVs and cruise missiles of Hezbollah’s Aerial Unit meant to attack citizens of the State of Israel were destroyed,” the IDF statement disclosed.
France and Italy have questioned the enforcement of the arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the U.S. prepares to put sanctions on the Hague-based kangaroo court.
President-elect Donald Trump and the U.S. Congress are considering placing “suffocating sanctions” on the scandal-ridden international court over its latest anti-Israel ruling. “Israeli news outlet Kan said President-elect Trump’s administration plans to initiate sanctions against the ICC judges who issued the warrants, including the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan,” Fox News reported Tuesday.
On Thursday, the court ruled that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for overseeing a military operation against the terrorist group Hamas in response to the October 7 massacre, issuing arrest warrants against the two leaders.
France declared that the Israeli prime minister enjoyed ‘immunity’ from the warrant, the French newspaper Le Monde reported Wednesday:
Provisions for immunity from prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC) apply to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the French foreign ministry said on Wednesday, November 27. In a statement, the ministry reaffirmed its commitment to international justice after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, but also said that the Israeli leader was covered by immunity rules that apply to states which are not a party to the ICC. Israeli is not an ICC member.”A state cannot be held to act in a way that is incompatible with its obligations in terms of international law with regards to immunities granted to states which are not party to the ICC,” the French statement read. “Such immunities apply to Prime Minister Netanyahu and other ministers in question, and must be taken into consideration should the ICC ask us to arrest them and hand them over,” it continued.
Italy raised serious doubts about the validity of the ICC warrant, Reuters reported Tuesday:
Italy on Tuesday said there were “many doubts” about an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying it was not feasible to arrest him as long as he remained in charge of the government.Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani,… said Rome had many doubts on the legality of the mandates and clarity was needed on whether high state officials had immunity from the arrest.”Netanyahu would never go to a country where he can be arrested,” Tajani told a news conference at the end of the two-day meeting Italy hosted in the spa town of Fiuggi.”The arrest of Netanyahu is unfeasible, at least as long as he is prime minister,” he said.
Germany has adopted an ambiguous position after previously suggesting that it would ‘implement’ the tribunal’s warrant against the Israeli leader. “German Government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit has suggested that Germany would be reluctant to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court,” the state-run DW TV reported earlier this week.
The UK’s Labour Party government appears to be fully behind the kangaroo court’s latest ruling, the BBC reported:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces arrest if he travels to the UK, after an international arrest warrant was issued for him, Downing Street has indicated.A No 10 spokesman refused to comment on the specific case but said the government would fulfil [sic] its “legal obligations”.
Meanwhile, the European Union’s outgoing foreign policy czar, Josep Borrell, is pressuring the bloc’s member states to take up an anti-Israel course. “Europe’s top diplomat Josep Borrell has insisted that the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and his former defence secretary should be respected, but European countries are not so sure,” the Euronews TV channel reported Friday.
Hours into President Biden-backed ceasefire, the Israeli military detected Hezbollah activity in southern Lebanon. Israel vowed to repel any terrorist buildup along its northern border.
“Over the past few hours, the IDF identified suspects in southern Lebanon and fired toward them,” the military disclosed in a statement on Wednesday morning. “The IDF remains in southern Lebanon and will actively enforce every violation of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli military and security forces seized large amounts of Iranian weapons intended for terrorists in the Palestinian Authority-run West Bank.
The Israeli security services “seized rockets, 40 powerful Claymore explosives of various types, some with wireless activation systems, bombs, mortar launchers, sniper rifles, and additional weapons,” the IDF said Wednesday.
The weapons smuggling operation was being run by Iran’s Islamic Guard (IRGC) and its international terrorist arm, the Quds Forces. “The 4000th Division, the Special Operations Division of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organization, headed by Jawad Ghafari, and the Special Operations Unit of the Quds Force, in Syrian territory (18840), under the command of Unit 840’s leader, Etsar Bakri, was responsible for the smuggling operation,” the Israeli military confirmed.
“In recent months, Israeli security forces have identified attempts by Iranian forces to resume smuggling advanced weapons into Israel, intended for the Judea and Samaria area.” the military revealed. “This is part of an ongoing Iranian campaign to destabilize the region’s security by arming terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria, to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops.”
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