The shooting war between Israel and Hezbollah has continued to escalate since the killing of Hezbollah military commander Ibrahim Aqil on Friday by an Israeli air strike, reported the Times of Israel. The IDF said Saturday that Israeli fighter jets struck some 180 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in the past few hours, taking out thousands of rocket launcher barrels which it said were primed for imminent attacks on Israel.
The IDF also said that Hezbollah launched nearly 100 rockets at Israel in an hour-and-half period of the early afternoon.
Earlier, Hezbollah had confirmed the “martyrdom” of Ibrahim Aqil in the Israeli strike on the Dahiyeh neighborhood in Beirut yesterday. In a statement Hezbollah confirmed Aqil’s death along with the deaths of a group of other commanders, reported Al Mayadeen.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said after an assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and other top military officers last night that, “Even in the Dahiyeh in Beirut, we will continue to pursue our enemy in order to protect our citizens,” reported the Times of Israel. “The sequence of operations in the new phase [of the war] will continue until our goal is achieved: The safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”
