After Hezbollah intensified its drone and rocket attacks on Israel, the Israeli military is reportedly planning to launch a ‘massive’ ground offensive against the Iranian proxy terrorist group in Lebanon. “Israel is planning to significantly expand its ground operation in Lebanon, aiming to seize the entire area south of the Litani River and dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, Israeli and U.S. officials say,” Axios reported Friday night.
After Hezbollah entered the conflict two weeks ago by firing rockets into northern Israel, the Israeli military renewed limited counter-terrorism ground raids into Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon.
“The IDF has had three armored and infantry divisions on the Lebanese border since the start of the Iran war, with some ground forces conducting limited incursions over the past two weeks,” the news outlet added. “On Friday, the IDF announced it’s sending reinforcements to the border and mobilizing additional reserves ahead of the expanded ground operation.”
The speculations of an Israeli ground operation come as Hezbollah chief, Naim Qassem, declared that his terrorist group was in “existential battle” against the Jewish state. Since Wednesday night, Hezbollah ramped up its rocket attacks on Israel, coordinating its barrages with Iranian ballistic missile fire.
“Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem claimed in a speech on Friday that Lebanon is engaged in what he called a “legitimate defensive battle against Israeli and American aggression” as he tried to justify his terrorist organization’s decision to join the fray following joint US-Israeli strikes in Iran,” the Israel National News reported. “He framed Hezbollah’s actions as a response and vowed that the group would remain steadfast on the battlefield, regardless of the sacrifices, describing the confrontation as an “existential battle.”
Responding to Hezbollah’s relentless aerial attack against Israeli towns and cities, the IDF targeted the terrorist group’s command and control in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
“Yesterday (Friday), the IDF completed several additional waves of strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut and southern Lebanon,” the Israeli military announced on Saturday. “Additional command centers established by the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Beirut were struck and destroyed by the IDF. This included Hezbollah command centers from which terrorists operated to advance terror attacks against the State of Israel and its residents.”
“Since the start of Operation Roaring Lion, the IDF has struck approximately 110 Hezbollah command centers,” the military disclosed.
On Friday, “IDF identified Hezbollah terrorists carrying rockets into a weapon storage facility in the Al-Majadel area in southern Lebanon,” the military said. “In a matter of minutes, the Israeli Air Force struck the warehouse and eliminated the terrorists.”
As the Operation Epic Fury enters its fourteenth day, Israeli fighter jets “dismantled” the main research center of the Iranian Space Agency.
“As part of the [ongoing]strikes, the IDF dismantled the regime’s primary space research center, which is part of the Iranian regime’s forces,” the military said in a statement on Saturday. “The center contained strategic laboratories used for research, including developing military satellites for a range of purposes including surveillance, intelligence collection, and directing fire toward targets across the Middle East.”
They also struck a factory producing air defense forces. “The IDF also struck several Iranian terror regime aerial defense systems production sites. As part of the strikes, the IDF struck a key factory used to produce Iranian terror regime air defense systems,” the statement added. “The strike significantly degrades the Iranian terror regime’s ability to rehabilitate its aerial defense array.”
Senior intelligence operatives of Iran’s “Khatam al-Anbiya” emergency command, responsible for coordinating war-time military operations.
On Friday, “the Israeli Air Force, acting on precise IDF intelligence, carried out a targeted strike in Tehran and eliminated Abdollah Jalali-Nasab and Amir Shariat, senior officials in the Intelligence Directorate of the “Khatam al-Anbiya” Emergency Command, which is directly subordinate to the leader of the Iranian terror regime,” the Israeli military said in a statement on Saturday afternoon.
“Following the elimination of the head of the Intelligence Directorate, Saleh Asadi, during the opening blow of Operation Roaring Lion, Jalali and Shariat were appointed to replace them. The two senior intelligence commanders were key figures in the Iranian intelligence community,” the IDF statement added.
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