The Israeli army announced that it carried out new attacks against rocket launchers of “Hezbollah” in southern Lebanon, hours after announcing that it was launching a pre-emptive strike against the Iranian-backed Lebanese group, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
„During the last hour, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) struck rocket launchers of “Hezbollah” in several areas in southern Lebanon to eliminate the threat”, the military said in a statement. Earlier this morning, the Israeli army announced that “about a hundred” its planes have “hit and destroyed thousands of rocket launchers of “Hezbollah“ during an attack to thwart the Lebanese movement's drone and missile attack.
For its part, “Hezbollah” announced that she “graduated” its attack for the day after launching a “large number of drones” and “over 320“ rockets “Katyusha“ against 11 military bases in Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, in response to the death of one of its military leaders, killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut on July 30.
„Shortly before 5:00 a.m. (02:00 GMT), the Israeli Air Force launched a complex operation in which about a hundred aircraft struck thousands of rocket launchers aimed at northern Israel in 40 firing zones in southern Lebanon”, military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani announced.
He pointed out that the group “Hezbollah“ has “prepared a large-scale attack” and that Israel acted “in self-defense to counter threats”. The attack by “Hezbollah” was part of “a larger planned attack and we were able to thwart a large part of it this morning,”, the spokesman added. “We are still assessing the damage caused by the attack, there are still fires, but I can tell you that the damage is minor from the Israeli side,”, he added.
The Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL) and the UN peacekeeping mission in the Middle Eastern country (UNIFIL) described as "alarming" events on the Israeli-Lebanese border, reported Reuters. From there, they called on all parties concerned to cease fire and refrain from further escalation of tensions. Egypt has warned that the opening of a new front in the Middle East conflict in Lebanon is dangerous. Cairo also called for stability amid another outbreak of fighting between the Lebanese Shiite movement "Hezbollah" and Israel.