Israeli warplanes bombed 47 towns and villages across southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday in what a Lebanese military source described as the most massive single-day attack since the April 16 ceasefire agreement, reported Al Mayadeen. Al Mayadeen’s tally of the strikes covers towns and villages across seven districts, from the southern border to the western Bekaa Valley. An additional 25 towns closer to the border were subjected to intense artillery fire, while attack drones struck vehicles in 11 towns. Beirut was spared during the first waves of Israeli strikes but there’s more to come.
The Israeli escalation came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he instructed the military to “press the pedal even harder” against Hezbollah, after a US official signaled that Washington would approve a larger operation against the Iran-backed terror group amid a surge in drone attacks, reported The Times of Israel.
“We are at war with Hezbollah. Just in recent weeks, our brave fighters have eliminated more than 600 terrorists,” Netanyahu said in a video statement. “But we are not taking our foot off the gas. On the contrary, I have instructed them to press the pedal even harder.”
“We will strike them. Yes, they are attacking us with drones, cyber-enabled drones, and we have a special team working on this—and we will solve that too…But what this requires from us now is to intensify the blows, increase the force. We will strike them decisively,” he said.
