Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck Hezbollah’s main Dahiyeh stronghold in southern Beirut on Sunday, responding to drone attacks by the Iranian proxy terrorist group.
“Following Hezbollah’s launch of aerial targets toward Israeli territory earlier today (Sunday), the IDF conducted a precise strike on a Hezbollah command center in Beirut,” the Israeli military announced.
The Lebanon-based terrorist group was using the command center to direct cross-border attacks against Israel, the IDF disclosed. “The command center was used by Hezbollah terrorists to advance terrorist attacks against the citizens of the State of Israel and IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon,” the military added.
Isreali news reports suggest that senior Hezbollah commander, Ali Moussa Dakdouk, was eliminated in a recent strike. Dakdouk (also spelled Daqduq) orchestrated the 2007 ambush on a U.S. military facility in Karbala, Iraq, resulting in the deaths of five American soldiers.
“Ali Musa Daqduq, a senior Hezbollah commander who held a series of 5 senior positions within Hezbollah,” the IDF said. “Daqduq played a central role in advancing terrorist attacks and combat operations against Israel and IDF soldiers. In 2007, he orchestrated the kidnapping and murder of 5 American soldiers.”
The IDF strike was in direct response to the latest drone attack on Israel. “In response to continued Hezbollah attacks on Israel’s territory, including a terror drone strike this morning, [Prime Minister Netanyahu] … authorized an IDF surgical strike on a Hezbollah terrorist target in the Dahieh quarter of Beirut,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement. “Israel will not tolerate firing at its territory.”
As Hezbollah continues its campaign of terror, official Israeli sources warned of renewed military operations against the terrorist group in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s Dahieh stronghold. “Israeli officials said Sunday that the strike on Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut’s Dahieh district may not be the last,” Israel’s Ynetnews reported. “The officials said the strike was “critical and is shaping the security concept against Hezbollah in Lebanon.” They noted that senior Israeli officials had already declared that any fire crossing the border from Lebanon into Israel would be met with strikes in Dahieh.”
Amid reports that the U.S. and Iran are close to signing a deal, President Donald Trump criticised the Israeli strike.
“This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Israel has the right to defend itself against threats, but the attack it was responding to was very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process.”
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