Overnight, Hezbollah launched what it said was its retaliation for the Israeli assassination in Beirut of Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr on July 30. “The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon—Hezbollah launched an ‘initial response’ to the assassination of Commander Martyr Fuad Shukr at dawn Sunday [August 25], on the anniversary of Imam Hussein’s Arbaeen, by launching a large number of drones deep into the occupied Palestinian territories,” Al Mayadeen reported this morning. The Arbaeen refers to a Shi’a holiday in Karbala.
According to the Al Mayadeen report, Hezbollah issued three statements, the first one announcing that it was only targeting Israeli military sites, the second confirming that it had successfully completed the first phase of its response; and the third declaring that it had successfully launched all its attack drones at the designated times from their respective launch sites. The second statement included a list of Israeli military bases, leading with the Meron intelligence base in northern Israel, which Hezbollah has attacked a number of times before.
The Israelis, for their part, claimed to have successfully pre-empted Hezbollah’s plans with hundreds of strikes by Israeli jets aimed at rocket launchers and other targets in southern and central Lebanon. Thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers were struck simultaneously by some 100 IAF fighter jets in the preemptive attacks, the military said, reported Times of Israel. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had identified overnight preparations in Hezbollah’s rocket array for a major and immediate attack on Israel. Fighter jets began to “remove the threat” shortly before 5 a.m. The preemptive strikes specifically targeted the sites in southern Lebanon that would have been used in the attack, according to the IDF. Hezbollah dismissed the Israeli claims as “as baseless and contrary to the facts on the ground.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, after the IDF launched the preemptive strikes. “We have conducted precise strikes in Lebanon in order to thwart an imminent threat against the citizens of Israel. We are closely following developments in Beirut, and we are determined to use all the means at our disposal in order to defend our citizens,” Gallant was quoted as saying in a readout from the Defense Ministry.
Early, preliminary reports indicate that two or three people have been killed in southern Lebanon, while in Israel the IDF said that some Hezbollah rockets did impact and cause injuries, but as of this writing, no more is known.
